Yasir Mehmood, Muhammad Bahzad Anjum and Mukhtar Ahmad Being an agricultural country, 63 percent of Pakistans total population is directly or indirectly engaged in the agricultural sector. According to a rough estimate, 45 percent of the total labour force of the country is employed by this sector. Hence, economic analysts commonly assume that whether it is a positive variation in agricultural productivity or negative, it directly affects the States economy and its people. Since the Green Revolution, Pakistan has been continuously facing a downtrend in the sectors growth, which is mainly due to poor management and the implementation of ineffective policies. It is also a fact that this sector has been completely ignored by the concerned authorities. This criminal negligence has not only affected the economic progress, but also the living standard of the masses. Hence, to improve the agriculture sector all issues, from farm water management to disbursement of loans, mechanisation, availability of quality inputs, etc, are required to be tackled to reap once again the full benefits of its potential. Thus, there is a need to inject new investments in this sector to boost productivity for the uplift of economy. It is crystal clear that without money Pakistan would not be able to tackle emerging challenges like water shortage, flood risks, infrastructure development, as well as endogenous and exogenous factors that are commonly faced by the agricultural sector. More so, productive investments in hybrid seeds, biotechnology, modern farming techniques, latest farm machinery and water infrastructure development have not been made. To boost the agricultural economy, therefore, it is essential to adopt such policies and procedures that work efficiently. Three core factors that significantly affect agricultural growth are the well calculated use of inputs, technological change and technical efficiency. Technological change is the result of research and development efforts, while technical efficiency through which new technology is adopted and used more rationally is affected by the flow of information, availability of funds and farmers managerial abilities. An appropriate use of inputs also requires funds at farmers disposal. These funds either come from the farmers own savings or through borrowings from various sources. As the saving of the farmers is either quite meagre or negative, they have to borrow. Credit not only provides financial resources to the farmers for the purchase of hybrid seed, fertilisers, pesticides, machinery, equipment, but also accelerates the pace of adoption of new technologies. It is a globally accepted fact that credit is an important tool for achieving higher production of crops and its in time availability is crucial for getting maximum benefits. In Pakistan, farmers face a lot of problems before and after agricultural credit is made available to them. The procedure for the preparation of passbook is quite difficult and once the loan has been sanctioned, the entire land is mortgaged irrespective of the disbursed amount that hinders the farmers from acquiring additional loans. Similarly, the financial institutions are providing loans to the farmers without the estimation of financial plan. In fact, the credit officer intends to finance heavy amount to the landlords in order to achieve his targets, and hesitates to disburse the loans to small farmers, or sanction very small amount, that ultimately result in the categorisation of loans into default stages like (OAEM, SS, DF, LOSS) in both categories. On the other hand, these institutions take too much time for the disbursement of loans against residential and commercial properties, as the process of mortgage is quite difficult and lengthy, which takes approximately more than two month. In addition, the charges on passbook involve an element of bribery as the official in the Revenue Department try to grab money from farmers, according to the amount sanctioned. Similarly, a big hurdle in form of high mark-up is faced by the borrowers, since it is beyond their repayment capacity, especially of the small farmers. Considering all the problems, the farmers in Pakistan are looking for efficient policies and strict implementations that can minimise their problems, as technical guidance cannot have a positive effect, unless it yields an economic benefit. It is high time for both the government and policymakers to plan and implement their strategies for the betterment of rural community. The State Bank should initiate a campaign in collaboration with the extension workers of the Agriculture Department to educate the farmers about how to avail of agricultural credit, its in time availability and proper usage, besides binding the financial institution to disburse the exact amount in view of the cost of production, according to the latest estimate of the Provincial Crop Reporting Services Department. Moreover, to avoid bribery, there is need to develop a monitoring system to observe the activities of officials at the Revenue Department. Further, financial institutions should simplify the lending procedures, while the defaulters or borrowers having political influences should not be entertained. Also, the mark-up rate should be brought down, especially for small farmers and in order to avoid the problem of high interest rates, the donors should introduce interest-free agricultural loan on the basis of partnership, like musharka or muzarba. Subsequently, in case of natural calamities, the banks should reschedule and restructure their existing non-performing loans. The writers are freelance columnists. Email:yasirmehmood2@gmail.com