Karmasangsthan Bank, Pran Dairy come forward to help dairy farmers

FE Report | Published: May 13, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

The Karmasangsthan Bank will provide loan at lower rate to the dairy farmers to help enhance their capacity in liquid milk production for the sake of a sustainable dairy industry in the country, officials said.
The bank will disburse the fund through Pran Dairy Ltd.
To this effect, the bank signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with PRAN-RFL Group at a city hotel Tuesday.
Initially, 100 contractual dairy farmers of PRAN will get the loan to buy cows, prepare shades, cattle feed and do farm-related other development activities, an official of the dairy company said.
Other dairy farmers of PRAN will get the fund in the next phase, he said, adding that each of farmers will receive the collateral-free loan worth Tk 0.1-0.5 million at 11 per cent interest.
Uzma Chowdhury, director (corporate finance) of PRAN-RFL Group, and Md. Obayed Ullah Al Masud, managing director of the bank, signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations.
Governor of Bangladesh Bank Dr Atiur Rahman was the chief guest at the signing ceremony.
Dr Rahman said that purposes of the project, under the MoU, are to increase production of liquid milk by farming hybrid cattle, creating employments of youths by developing a sustainable dairy industry, and provide technical assistance in cattle treatment, food, reproduction and milk storage to the dairy farmers.
Firstly, the 'PRAN Dairy Hub', a project of PRAN Dairy Ltd, will prepare a list of the promising dairy farmers and the bank will then shortlist them and disburse the loan to them, he said.
PRAN will provide technical assistance to the farmers, he said.
The PRAN Dairy will purchase milk from the farmers, under Karmasangsthan Bank's fund, and deposit the loan-instalments from their payments to the bank and hand over the rest of the money to the farmers, he said.
"As the PRAN Group will be bound to buy milk from the farmers under the project, they seem not to be deprived of fair price," the BB governor said, adding that it is a win-win situation for all the three parties.
He also expected that the bank and PRAN Group will give priority to the women in selecting the farmers under the project.
The BB governor said that the initiative might be a small one but a great move towards the dream of having a modern and sustainable dairy industry in the country.
Appreciating both the organisations, the governor assured of providing support from the central bank's refinance scheme, if other companies and banks come forward with such initiatives.
Uzma Chowdhury said that more than 9,000 registered dairy farmers are working with three PRAN Dairy hubs at Gurudashpur of Natore, Chatmahor of Pabna and Rangpur; they bring up 16 thousands cattle.
She further said that PRAN Dairy provides various facilities including vaccination, treatment, training on farm set-up and artificial insemination to the dairy farmers.
The company has 123 milk collection and chilling centres, where as 0.15 million litter of liquid milk is collected daily, she added.  
Akhter Zamil FCA, chairman of Karmasangstan Bank, Anisur Rahman, chief operating officer of PRAN Dairy, and senior officials of both the companies, among others, attended the function.
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