The Agriculture Department has been actively providing subsidies on fertilizers to facilitate farmers. Previously, an indirect subsidy was provided to farmers by cutting down price of fertilizer products. Since transparency and evaluation mechanisms for the indirect subsidy were vague, PITB and the Agriculture Department have jointly launched a direct subsidy programme. PITB has developed a web portal enabling the fertilizer marketing companies to generate unique codes for their products (MOP, SOP and DAP). The codes are printed and pasted inside fertilizer bags. The registered farmer has to purchase the bag, scratch the coupon and send an SMS to the designated number. The system recognises the details and sends a confirmation. Then the registered farmer can go to an agent with the SMS and original CNIC to encash the subsidy money. The system is developed in such a way that every successive transaction, location and usage detail is updated in real-time. The process has resulted in more transparency and accuracy in delivering cash subsidies to registered farmers. It has also resulted in a vast database of registered farmers and statistics regarding geographical use of certain fertilizers.
