Farmers are now reaping the benefits from the government’s agro-friendly initiatives and low cost loan support.
With an aim to ensure food security as its topmost priority amid Covid-19 that has hit life and livelihood hard, the government is providing huge facilities to the farmers including loans.
It was even learned that farmers are facing different challenges, but the authorities concerned are saying farmers are getting farmers/ agriculture loans easily.
Md. Ali Hossain Prodhania, former Managing Director of Bangladesh Krishi Bank (BKB) while talking to Bangladesh Post said, “The allegation that is arising is not true. Out of the Tk 5000 crore incentive package of the government, Tk 1199 crore has been distributed for farmers only across the country. Another amount of Tk 500 crore has also been sought from the central bank which was approved by the authority and later distributed to farmers.”
When asked that the farmers loan was being disbursed to another sector he said, “The amount allotted for the farmers cannot be used in any other sectors. While disbursing the amount it is specially stated for which sector the amount can be used. There is no anarchy of middlemen. Our utmost efforts now make the loan procedure easy and farmer-friendly”.
To make agricultural loans easily available, the government has recently reduced the loan interest rate by 1 percent.
“Bangladesh Bank cut the interest rate at 8.0 per cent from the previous 9.0 per cent as part of its efforts to boost the agriculture sector amidst the ongoing economic slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Bangladesh Bank's chief spokesperson Md. Serajul Islam.
Oxfam and Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), in collaboration with the European Union, conducted a social audit on agricultural credit and agricultural services among char area’s farmers titled ‘Participation of Institutions in Democratic Good Governance’.
Out of 100, 34 farmers spoke about various issues. Although there were various complaints about agricultural loans, 89 percent of the farmers did not lodge any complaint regarding this. The audit was conducted at Dimla, Nilphamari.
According to the central bank, in the first nine months of the current financial year (July-March), farmers have repaid loans worth Tk 19,774.89 crore. The collection has increased by Tk 2,831.73 crore over that in the same period last year. Earlier, in the fiscal year 2019-20 (July-March), 16,943.16 taka was collected.
According to the latest data from the central bank, in the first nine months of the current fiscal year 2020-21 (July-March), some banks have achieved 100 per cent of the annual target, but most banks have disbursed less than 50 per cent of the target. Of these, 11 banks are below 20 per cent.
However, all scheduled banks have achieved nearly 70.41 per cent of their annual agricultural loan disbursement target (Tk.26, 292 crore).
According to the updated data of Bangladesh Bank, the target for disbursement of loans in the banking sector is Tk 26,292 crore for the current financial year. Till March, the banks have disbursed loans of Tk 18513.31 crore.
