The central bank has raised the farm loan disbursement target to Tk20,400 crore for the Fiscal Year 2017-18, up 16.4% from Tk17,550 crore set in FY’17.
Bangladesh Bank Deputy Governor SM Moniruzzaman announced the target while unveiling the agriculture and rural credit policy for the current fiscal year at a meeting at BB headquarters in Dhaka on Thursday.
According to the central banks’ target, state-owned commercial and specialised banks have to disburse Tk9,590 crore by June 2018, while private commercial and foreign commercial banks Tk10,810 crore as agriculture credit.
During the concluded fiscal year, the banks disbursed an agricultural loan of Tk20,998.70 crore, which was 120% of the target of Tk17,550 crore, according to the latest data unveiled by Bangladesh Bank.
According to the BB data, the state-owned and specialised banks have disbursed agricultural credit of Tk9,698 crore while the private and foreign commercial banks Tk11,300 crore during the last fiscal year.
A total of 38,56,635 farmers received agriculture and rural credit in the immediate past fiscal year. Of them, 29,74,407 were small and marginal farmers who got Tk14,930.46 crore, while 18,47,065 women received Tk6,240.66 crore.
In the announcement of agriculture and rural credit policy, the central bank added some new benefits to the previous ones for farmers.
The new facilities include highest interest rate for agriculture credit fixed at 9% instead of previous 10% and no imposition of other service charges. Besides, the banks are instructed to disburse loans to newly invented and high-quality vegetables and crops.
“We have raised the farm and rural credit disbursement target to mitigate income inequality of the poor as well as accelerate our sustainable economic development,” said SM Moniruzzaman during his speech at the event.
Thursday, June 04, 2026
