Bangladesh Bank has planned to incorporate more farm products in the farm and rural credit policy to support growers for cultivation of local fruits such as malta, hog plum and safeda.
‘Growers of these fruits will be given credit support from the fiscal year 2013-14 because such credit facilities would encourage farmers to cultivate local fruits which would ultimately help cut down the import of fruits from abroad,’ said a BB official.
As agro and rural credit is given priority considering the contribution of the agricultural sector to the overall economy, the central bank is actively considering bringing changes in disbursement and monitoring of the farm and rural credit.
‘As the country’s commercial banks, including the foreign ones, are channelizing more credit to the agriculture sector at the instruction of BB, more new farm products are being included in the list of farm credit every year,’ said general manager of BB’s Agricultural Credit and Financial Inclusion Department Ashok Kumar Dey.
He said the central bank had been working to announce the next agricultural and rural credit policy for the fiscal year 2013-14 in July.
Ashok said farmers were cultivating hog plum and safeda on commercial basis and farmers in some areas were also growing malta. ‘If these growers are given credit support, they would be encouraged to go for a large-scale production of these fruits,’ he added.
He said the central bank has also decided to provide producers of compost (worm composting) fertiliser with credit facility. A guideline would have to be prepared for banks for giving such credit, he added.
According to the BB, banks and financial institutions disbursed farm credit worth Tk 10,020 crore during the July-March period, which is 71 per cent of the total agro-credit disbursement target of Tk 14,130 crore for the fiscal year 2012- 13.
-With New Age input
