Only 17 per cent of smallholder farmers in the country have access to loan service with both specialised and commercial banks, according to a latest survey of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the UN.
"The role of both government specialised banks and private commercial banks in terms of disbursement of farm loans is not satisfactory," said the study released on Tuesday.
The loan disbursement among marginal farmers is even much lower in the state-run specialised banks and organisations, including Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank (RAKUB), Bangladesh Krishi Bank (BKB), and Bangladesh Rural Development Board (BRDB) -- only 7.19 per cent of them received loans in 2018, the study shows.
The 'Missing Middle Initiative (MMI) Bangladesh' project of the FAO conducted the study. The project aims to improve access of farmers' organisations to financial services.
The survey results were disclosed at a workshop titled 'Financial Inclusion of Smallholder Farmers,' held at the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC) auditorium in the city, jointly organised by the MMI Bangladesh and the agriculture ministry.
The study showed that the state-run RKB and BKB each provided loans to only 1.0 per cent of small-scale female farmers and the BRDB to 2.0 per cent of small-scale female farmers. And the figure for marginal male farmers is less than 10 per cent.
The access to national commercial banks (NCBs) for male and female farmers was also lower at 13 per cent and 17 per cent respectively, it said.
However, the NGOs and informal lenders (mahajon) were seen much interested in providing loans to such farmers.
Over 58 per cent of female farmers received loans from microcredit programmes of different NGOs, according to the study.
The informal lenders also provide loans to 29 per cent of male farmers and 20 per cent of female farmers, it said.
The study also showed that the average loan size is US$ 730 (Tk 61,202) for male farmers and $655 (Tk 55,060) for female farmers.
It also revealed a poor presence of government agricultural extension workers-only one person for every 1,100 smallholder farmers.
The survey also showed that 85 per cent of farmers sought credits.
The preferences of the loans were 49 per cent for livestock, 14 per cent for paddy, 9.0 per cent for agribusiness, 7.0 per cent for vegetables, 6.0 per cent for seeds and 3.0 per cent for fish, it said.
The base-line survey was conducted on 788 households under 142 villages in 16 districts in the country.
Speaking at the workshop as the chief guest, agriculture secretary Md Nasiruzzaman said the survey depicted a grim picture of financial exclusion of small-scale farmers.
tonmoy.wardad@gmail.com