Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor Dr Atiur Rahman asked all banks to provide more financial support to set up processing industries and adequate storages for perishable crops, like - potato and tomato, so farmers can get fair prices of their produces, reports BSS.
He also said banks should fund building an efficient supply-chain, which will protect the interest of both consumers and growers.
Addressing a review meeting on agro credit, Dr Atiur said farmers, particularly the growers of potato, tomato, ginger and tamarind, suffered loss this year because of price fall in the local market.
"Consumers in big cities and towns are paying high prices for these items, but the growers are not getting its benefit due to lack of processing industries, adequate storages and a proper supply-chain," the governor said.
The meeting, held at the central bank's headquarters in the capital, was a routine one to review the progress of agro loan disbursement and recovery. Chief executives of all the scheduled banks attended the meeting.
The review meeting found that some foreign banks and eight of the new local banks did not disburse any loan in agriculture sector.
The governor expressed his disappointment at such inaction of the banks in agro credit activities, saying "this was not expected".
He said providing agro sector with at least 5.0 per cent of total loan portfolio is one of the conditions of the licences for opening new banks. But, it was not followed by the banks, as they did not disburse any loan to farmers since their launching.
"Does it mean that the banks concerned did not disburse loans to anyone or any sector in the past seven months of their opening?" the governor wondered.
He asked the banks to act immediately to follow the rule and support agriculture sector on a priority basis.
The central bank targeted disbursement of Tk 145.95 billion in agriculture sector in the current financial year (FY), 2013-14, which is 3.3 per cent higher than the previous year's disbursement.
The local and foreign banks disbursed Tk 88.20 billion during July-January, which was 60.43 per cent of the total disbursement target.
Dr Atiur advised banks to speed up their lending process, so that the disbursement target can be achieved by the FY-end.
The governor advised banks to provide more loans to import-supplement produces, like - pulses, spices, corn, maze and oil seeds, for lessening the country's import dependency for these essential items.
The banks in July-January period disbursed a total of Tk 480 million to the import-supplement produces, which was 54.0 per cent of the total disbursement of Tk 909.3 million.
He also suggested the banks to expedite loan recovery process, which was only 31.0 per cent of the total target for recovery till January-end.
BB asks banks to aid potato growers
FE Team | Published: February 27, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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