Farm loans up by Tk 6.61b

Farm-loan disbursement grew by over 14 per cent or Tk 6.61 billion in the first four months of the current fiscal year, suiting government agricultural policy.
Much of the credit for the steady growth in agricultural credits, officials said, goes to persistent persuasion of bankers by the central bank.
The aggregate disbursement of farm credits by the banks rose to Tk 52.73 billion in the July-October period of the FY 2016-17 from the previous mark of Tk 46.12 billion, according to Bangladesh Bank (BB) latest statistics.
Of the Tk 52.73 billion, eight state-owned banks distributed Tk 22.04 billion, and the remaining Tk 30.69 billion was disbursed by the private commercial banks (PCBs) and foreign commercial banks (FCBs).
All the scheduled banks have achieved 30.04 per cent of their annual agricultural credit-disbursement target for the FY 17, fixed at Tk 175.50, the BB data showed.
The central bank is set to review the performances in agricultural credit disbursement and recovery by eight state-owned banks on November 29, according to a BB senior official.
The eight state-owned banks are Sonali Bank Limited, Janata Bank Limited, Agrani Bank Limited, Rupali Bank Limited, BASIC Bank Limited, Bangladesh Development Bank Limited (BDBL), Bangladesh Krishi Bank (BKB) and Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank (RAKUB).
"We'll advice the banks at the meeting to take effective measures to meet the growing demand for such credits from interested farmers during boro and robi cropping season," the central banker told the FE Tuesday.
He also said the BB will ask the public banks to provide adequate credit support to farmers in time without any harassment to facilitate overall agricultural production across the country.
"We're working to achieve the agro-credit-disbursement target by the end of this fiscal," the central banker said.
He also said the central bank is set to review the performances in both agricultural credit disbursement and recovery by all scheduled banks in the month of December to know the overall agro-credit situation.
The recovery of farm loans, however, was also higher at Tk 51.27 billion during the period under the review from Tk 45.08 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal.
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