The central bank yesterday set a target to disburse Tk 12,617 crore in agriculture loans for the current fiscal year in an effort to ensure food security.
The loans will be equivalent to 9.5 percent of the national budget.
At a press meet at his office, Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor Atiur Rahman said private and foreign banks would contribute significantly to the loans.
According to BB statistics, the new target for the current fiscal year is 13.49 percent higher than the loans disbursed last year. The distribution target for agriculture loans was Tk 11,500 crore in fiscal 2009-10, while Tk 11,117 crore or 97 percent was disbursed.
Of the target for the current fiscal year, the private commercial banks (PCBs) will distribute 24 percent. Even though state commercial banks (SCBs) have more branches in rural areas, they will distribute 20 percent of the total target.
The governor said the private banks have achieved much progress in distributing agricultural loans, which is encouraging. They also pledged to keep the rate of interest on loans within 9 percent.
Although the foreign banks have no branch in rural areas, they have set a target to distribute Tk 583 crore in agriculture loans, the governor said.
Even a foreign bank with limited operations in Bangladesh, Woori Bank, will disburse Tk 10 crore, the governor added.
Prior to the press meet, the BB governor held a bankers' committee meeting with the chief executives of local and foreign banks, where the governor explained the policy on agriculture loan disbursement in detail. He also presented the steps taken by the government to boost the farm sector.
He told the meeting that the central bank has given the guidelines to make the application form to distribute agriculture loans, lessen the time gap between loan sanction and disbursement, waive the processing fees on crop loans, distribute loans to the farmers through their bank accounts and distribute loans openly to ensure transparency.
The governor said cultivation of palm oil on a commercial basis has not yet started in Bangladesh. However, according to the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), it is possible in 27 districts. Rahman said palm saplings have already been sown in some areas.
The central bank governor said palm cultivation was incorporated in the agricultural loan policy to encourage farmers to cultivate it on a commercial basis.
New areas and sectors have been included for distribution of agricultural loans, to cultivate high value crops, like orange, strawberry, betel leaf, honey, and tissue culture. Besides, the banks were advised to provide loans for buying solar energy run power pumps, Rahman said.
He said alongside disbursement of agricultural loans, the banks were asked to give more attention to its recovery.
BB Deputy Governor Murshid Kuli Khan said last fiscal year, the central bank introduced a Tk 500 crore new scheme to give loans to sharecroppers for the first time. Quoting the latest statistics, he said Tk 82 crore has so far been distributed among 73,000 sharecroppers.
Outside the BB scheme, the banks, under their yearly agriculture loan programmes, distributed about Tk 422 crore in loans to 3,80,000 sharecroppers.
Khan also said at present, agriculture loans are being distributed with transparency. About 88,00,000 bank accounts have been opened for the farmers and loans are being distributed through those accounts.
Source: thedailystar.net
