Bangladesh Bank on Tuesday announced the agriculture and rural credit policy and programmes for the current fiscal year of 2012-13 focusing on protection of agriculture sector from the adverse impact of climate change.
BB governor Atiur Rahman said that the country’s season change due to climate change affected the agriculture production.
Under the circumstances, the agriculture loan would be disbursed under an area approach and the time duration of loan recovery should be changed, he said at a meeting with managing directors and chief executive officers of commercial banks at the BB headquarters in the capital.
One of the severe challenges for the country’s agriculture sector is global climate change and in consideration of that factor the central bank has formulated its agriculture credit policy for this year, he said.
He said, ‘Due to climate change, the banks would disburse loans for the saline-tolerance crops in salty area. Similarly, the agriculture loan would be disbursed for the drought-tolerance crops in a drought prone area.’
He said that the banks would have to disburse farm loan through Tk-10 farmers’ account in order to increase the transparency in agriculture loan programmes.
The BB has set a target of Tk 14,130 crore of farm loans for FY 2012-13 which is 2.4 per cent higher than the previous year, he said.
BB data showed that all banks had collectively disbursed Tk 13,132.15 crore, or 95 per cent of the target, in farm loans in the just concluded financial year of 2011-12.
For 2011-12, 24 banks out of 45 commercial banks, which had farm loan programmes, failed to distribute hundred per cent loans among the farmers.
At a press briefing after the meeting between the central bank and the commercial banks, BB deputy governor SK Sur Chowdhury said that the central bank had deducted three per cent of non-disbursed farm loans from the banks’ deposit money which had failed to disburse hundred per cent loans to the farmers.
The amounts have been kept with the central bank fund and it would be repaid without any interest if the commercial banks disburse the amount with the new farm loan target for the FY 2012-13, he said.
A BB official said that the central bank had earlier warned that it would cut the same amount of non-disbursed farm loans from the banks’ deposit money with the central bank at the end of FY 2011-12.
He, however, said that the central bank had played a relaxed role in this regard, as the BB deducted only three per cent of the non-disbursed amount.
BB data showed that 24 banks that failed to disburse hundred per cent loans to the farmers are : Sonali Bank, Janata Bank, Agrani Bank, Rupali Bank, Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Bank Al-Falah, National Bank of Pakistan, Premier Bank, Bangladesh Commerce Bank, Dutch-Bangla Bank, EXIM Bank, First Security Islami Bank, Jamuna Bank, Mercantile Bank, Mutual Trust Bank, National Bank, National Credit and Commerce Bank, Prime Bank, Pubali Bank, Shahjalal Islamic Bank, Southeast Bank, Standard Bank and UCBL.