Tk 18,684cr in agri loans released in July-January of FY 2022-23

Staff Reporter :
Amid the growing concern on food security, government emphasis on issuing credit to the farmers for promoting agricultural production including crop production , livestock and fisheries. So far, bank disbursed Tk 18,684 crore in the first seven months (July- January) of the current financial year 2022-2023, which is 60.45 per cent of the total annual disbursement target, according to the recent data from Bangladesh Bank.  
However, the agricultural credit disbursement target has been set at Tk 30,911 crore for FY23, which is 8.88 per cent higher than Tk 28,391 crore targeted in FY22. The disbursement was higher by Tk 1,600 crore than that of the same period of the previous fiscal year.
Although the targeted and the disbursed amount are increasing over the years, it is alleged the credit support is not covering the marginal and small farmers rather the credit receivers mainly local elites having huge political and social influences.
Seeking anonymity, several branch managers of the commercial banks said that, the significant part of the agricultural loan facilities received by those persons who are not connect with agricultural activities directly, rather they mostly depends on sharecroppers because of their land ownership. They have huge political influence and sometimes, we have nothing to do.
According to latest data from the central bank, nine banks including Bank Al-Falah, Commercial Bank of Ceylon, Habib Bank, State Bank of India, Bank Asia, Dhaka Bank, One Bank, Shimanto Bank and Uttara Bank have already crossed agricultural loan disbursement targets for FY23 in the first seven months from July to January.
By contrast, banks that failed to perform well mostly blamed the lack of branches in rural areas.
Business insiders said that, most of the banks disburse agricultural loans through different non-governmental organizations or NGOs,
which, in turn, raises the interest rates on the loans. The rates reach the highest 24% when the loans go through NGOs. They remain at only 8% in the case of regular lending from branches and agent banking outlets.
Around 50-60% of agricultural loans are now distributed with the help of NGOs, they estimated.
Central bank data revealed, during this period, loan disbursements and repayments have increased along with the amount of defaulted loan has decreased.
Agricultural farms have repaid the loan of Tk 27 thousand 211 crore or 67.79 percent till January of FY23 while in the banking sector the total loanable fund for agriculture is Tk 51 thousand 225 crore. Till January FY 23, the defaulted loans in this sector is Tk 3 thousand 905 crore, which is 7.62 percent of the total loans, in the same period of previous financial year, defaulted loans were 8.15 percent.