Effects of Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited Finance Program on Poplar Plantations in Rural areas of District Mardan-Pakistan

Poplar plants play important role in the development of farming community while due to financial problems it is difficult for the community to invest more in the plantation of poplar. The farming communities get loan from the Banks in their area. The study was carried out in rural area of District Mardan , to analyze the effects of Zarai Tarqiati Bank limited Finance Program on poplar plantations on various size of farms, problems and constraints faced by farmer in financing procedure.The Universe was District Mardan which consists of three tehsils, namely Mardan, Takhth Bahi and Katlang. Purposively from each tehsil two villages were selected. In the study area the total beneficiaries were 260. From all, data were collected with the help of questionair. Wilcoxon Sign test and correlation were used for data analysis. The total amount disbursed to sampled farmers was Rs.57420000 and the share of the Short term 17%, Medium term 80% while the long term share was only 3%.The total plants number before credit on all farms of the sampled respondents were 47451. After credit the number was estimated 109407. However the total differences of plants were 61956. Wilcoxon Sign Rank test result was also found highly significant at 0.01 levels while the coefficient of correlation between size of land and poplar plants were .383 and found highly significant at 0.01 levels however the. Shortage of finance, high costs, high interest rate , complicated procedure of the bank, non availability of loan in time etc were found the problems for taking loan in the study area. Few recommendations, finance provision according to requirements, in time availability of finance; low interest rate ; one window operation policy; Special poplar plantation program were suggested for enhancing poplar plantation in the study area etc. Keywords: Effects, Zari Tarqiati Bank Limited, Finance Program, Poplar Plantation, Rural Area District Marda