The disbursement of rural credit for agriculture has increased by 13 per cent as the government lays emphasis on domestic production to deal squarely with food and economic problems.
Banks disbursed agricultural loan of Tk 16,670 crore in the first six months of the current fiscal year up by around 13 percent over the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.
In order to boost the production in agriculture and SME sector the government has been announcing refinancing scheme one after another.
For this, the Bangladesh Bank has also given special instructions to banks to increase investment in agriculture sector.
Following the Bangladesh instructions, banks have now increased their investment in agriculture sector.
Experts said that investment in the agricultural sector is risk-free. As the incidence of defaulting in this sector is low, they said that banks have increased investment in this sector.
According to the latest report of the central bank, in the first six months of the current financial year 2022-2023, Tk 16,670 crore has been disbursed in the agriculture and rural credit sector which was 53.93 per cent of the total target.
It was Tk 2,173 crore or about 13 percent more than the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.
Besides, agriculture loan disbursement increased by Tk 3,893 crore or 23.35 per cent in December, 2022 from the previous month.
A senior official of the central bank said, “There is a global food and economic crisis. Food prices are also increasing. Food crisis may become more pronounced in future. Considering these aspects, there are guidelines for increasing food production. For this, Bangladesh Bank has given instructions to other banks to distribute farm loans. For these reasons, the disbursement of agricultural loans by commercial banks has increased. Again, the amount of collection has also increased with the distribution.”
According to the data of Bangladesh Bank, in the last financial year 2021-2022, the target of disbursement of loans to the agricultural sector was Tk 28,391 crore. However, the banks have disbursed more than the target which was about 102 percent.
In the current financial year 2022-2023, the agricultural loan target has been fixed at Tk 30,911 crore.
Banks have already disbursed 53.93 percent of the total target of loans in the first six months of the financial year.