Banks disbursed rural credit worth Tk 12,777 crore for agriculture in the first five months of the current fiscal year, up by 15.68 percent from the same period of the last fiscal year.
The credit disbursement increased mainly as demand rose among farmers to grow winter vegetables, according to Bangladesh Bank (BB) latest report.
Around 41.34 percent of the target for this fiscal year has been
disbursed during July-November
period. The target for disbursement of agricultural loans in the current financial year set Tk 30,911 crore.
During July-November period, the state-owned banks disbursed loans of Tk 5,590 crore, which was 43 percent of the target while foreign and private banks have given loans worth Tk 7,718 crore, which was 40 percent of the total target.
Bangladesh Krishi Bank disbursed the highest amount of credit worth Tk 3,270 crore during July-November period, which was 46.58 percent of the total target.
Banks disbursed more than the target of disbursement of loans in the last financial year, which was 101.56 percent.
The target for disbursement of agricultural loans in the fiscal year 2021-22 was Tk 28,391 crore. However, banks have disbursed agricultural and rural loans amounting to Tk 28,834 crore. A total of 33,04,811 people got this loan in the last fiscal year.
Through the banks' own network and Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) linkage, 17,97,052 women have received agricultural and rural loans of Tk 10,829 crore during the time.
In the last fiscal year, 24,99,945 small and marginal farmers received loans of about 20,182 crore from various banks and 4,073 farmers of backward areas like char, haor and so on received loans of about 19.59 crore.
In the context of the post-Covid economic recovery and the global recession, the Central Bank has instructed the banks to fix the financing of agriculture and agricultural products production and marketing to maintain food supply in the country.
Bangladesh Bank has also simplified the loan disbursement system at low interest.
Under the livestock sector, seven sectors have been added in the new policy, including regular additions for duck rearing, regular additions, chia seeds, tin fruit, sugar beet cultivation.
