ISLAMABAD, Dec 15: President Asif Ali Zardari asked the Zarai Taraqiati Bank and the ministry of agriculture on Monday to implement Benazir zarai card and tractor schemes for small farmers from next month.

Under a new presidential directive, manufacturers of urea fertiliser will now also be implicated in FIRs if their dealers are found involved in hoarding and overcharging.

The urea shortage has hit the market during the crucial wheat sowing season soon after the government streamlined the availability of diammonium phosphate (DAP) fertiliser.

The president allowed the import of raw sugar to avert its expected shortage in future and asked the authorities concerned to complete the import of 3.5 million tons of wheat before the harvest of the new crop in April-May next year.

President Zardari was briefed on the food security situation at a meting attended by Food and Agriculture Minister Nazar Mohammad Gondal, Information Minister Sherry Rehman, Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance Shaukat Tarin, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Sardar Assef Ahmed Ali, State Bank Governor Shamshad Akhtar and senior officials of the relevant ministries.Briefing the media after the meeting, Mr Gondal and Ms Rehman said that under the Benazir zarai (loan) card scheme, a loan of up to Rs500,000 per crop would be provided to farmers to purchase seeds, fertilisers, pesticides and other inputs.

The scheme will be implemented on a pilot basis in each district of the four provinces and will soon be extended to other parts of the country.

The ZTBL and the National Bank of Pakistan will provide loan under the scheme and the SBP has been asked to work out an implementation plan for the project. The loan will be disbursed against every crop with a grace period of 90 days. The scheme will benefit small farmers of up to 12 acres in Punjab and the NWFP, 16 acres in Sindh and 32 acres in Balochistan. After the grace period, the loan will be charged with eight to nine per cent interest rate.

The progress of the scheme will be reviewed every three months and the card will be a secured revolving credit card valid for three years. Interest rate on the credit will be as per the rate applicable on production loans. There will be no limit on the number of transactions through the card and require no more than one interface of the farmer with bank officials.

Under the Benazir tractor scheme, 20,000 tractors will be provided to small farmers and the government will provide Rs200,000 subsidy on each tractor.

The agriculture minister said that an option of disbursing both reconditioned and new tractors was under consideration.

Agriculture ministry officials informed the president that an increase in the official support price (Rs950 per 40kg) had encouraged the farmers to sow wheat on 201 million acres and the country would be able to achieve or reach close to the 25 million tons production target for 2008-09.

Mr Zardari asked the commerce ministry to make arrangements with the departments concerned to export surplus rice of four million tons. He also asked the officials concerned to immediately export 1.5 million tons of rice to enable growers to get reasonable price for their produce.

Mr Gondal said that out of three million tons of wheat, 1.7 million tons had been imported and import of the remaining quantity was in the pipeline.

About 1.4 million tons of imported wheat had been supplied to remote areas while 5,000 tons of flour to the NWFP and 1,000 tons to Balochistan were being supplied from Punjab.About the urea situation, Mr Gondal said that 65,000 tons of urea had been imported last month and another 186,000 tons would be imported this month.