A file photo shows farmers working on a paddy field in Dhaka. Bangladesh Bank data shows banks disbursed only 55.72 per cent of their annual target of agricultural loans in the first eight months of the current financial year. — New Age photo

Banks disbursed only 55.72 per cent of their annual target of agricultural loans in the first eight months of the current financial year.
According to the latest provisional data released by the Bangladesh Bank on Sunday, state-owned, private and foreign commercial banks, and specialised banks from July to February of the FY2011-12 collectively disbursed Tk 7,688.89 crore in farm loans against the annual disbursement target of Tk 13,800 crore. 
The agricultural loans disbursed by the banks in the same period of the previous financial year totalled at Tk 7,990.22 crore, 63.33 per cent of the annual target of the agricultural credits Tk 12,617.40 crore.
BB data also showed that the agricultural credit disbursement from July to February of the FY2011-12 also declined by 3.77 per cent from that of the same period of the previous financial year.
A BB official told New Age that banks usually disbursed large amount of agricultural loans during boro season.
Although the current boro season which started on October 1, 2011 and will end on March 31, the loan disbursement has remained low, he said.
He said that farm loan disbursement rate in the first eight months of the current financial year had dropped because of a liquidity crisis in the banking sector.
He said that the government also continued to borrow from the banking channel and as a result the flow of loan disbursement to industrial and agricultural sector significantly fell.  
BB data showed that the state-owned commercial banks — Sonali, Janata, Agrani and Rupali and the two specialised banks — Bangladesh Krishi Bank and Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank — in the first eight months of the current financial year had disbursed Tk 5,183.71 crore in farm loans or 60.91 per cent of their annual disbursement target of Tk 8,510 crore. The state-owned banks had disbursed 68 per cent of their annual target of agricultural loans in the first eight months of the FY2010-11.
The private and the foreign commercial banks, however, remained reluctant to disburse loans to the farmers in the first eight months of the current financial year, according to BB data.
The PCBs and the FCBs in the period disbursed Tk 2,505.19 crore in agricultural loans, which was 47.36 per cent of their total annual disbursement target of Tk 5,290 crore. 
In the same period of the previous financial year, they disbursed 50.93 per cent of their annual target of the agricultural lending.
Nirmal Chandra Bhakta, general manager of BB agricultural credit department, said the farm loan disbursement by banks in February this year increased than that of the previous few months.
The farm loan disbursement on crops, livestock and fisheries ventures has recently increased because of strong monitoring by the BB, he said.
Besides, banks disbursed agricultural credits of Tk 155.90 crore from July to February of the FY2011-12 under the refinance scheme of the central bank, he said.