Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - Farm credit disbursements recorded a 32.39 per cent growth in the first half (H1) of this fiscal following some measures including relaxation of rules and regulations by the central bank.

Eight state-owned banks and financial institutions along with both local and foreign private commercial banks disbursed BDT 55.979 billion as agriculture loans during July-December period of the fiscal 2009-10 (FY10) against BDT 42.283 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal, according to the central bank statistics.

The banks and financial institutions achieved 48.63 per cent of their annual target, which has been fixed at Tk 115.12 billion, in the period under review compared to 45.08 per cent in the corresponding period of the last fiscal.

"We've asked the banks and financial institutions for taking effective measures to achieve the agro-credit disbursement target by the end of this fiscal," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) said.

He also said the agro-credit disbursement will increase in the months of January and February this year to meet the growing demand of the farmers during the boro cropping season.

The central bank earlier asked the commercial banks, particularly private commercial banks (PCBs), to link up with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to ensure optimum disbursement of farm credit across the country, the BB official said.

During the period, eight state-owned banks and financial institutions disbursed BDT 42.479 billion compared to BDT 33.352 billion of the same period of the previous fiscal while the PCBs and foreign commercial banks (FCBs) lent BDT 13.499 billion to farmers as against BDT 8.931 billion of the previous fiscal.

The state-run banks and financial institutions are: Sonali Bank Limited, Janata Bank Limited, Agrani Bank Limited, Rupali Bank Limited, Bangladesh Krishi Bank (BKB), Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank (RAKUB), Bangladesh Rural Development Board (BRDB) and Bangladesh Samobaya Bank Limited (BSBL).

The loans have been given to eight agro-based sub-sectors like crops, irrigation equipment, livestock, agricultural products marketing, fisheries and poverty alleviation.

The BB official also said the central bank wants to ensure credit facilities for each interested farmer across the country without any harassment.

The central bank of Bangladesh earlier made it mandatory for all local and foreign commercial banks to disburse agriculture credit to help ensure food security of Bangladesh.

Besides, the BB has relaxed its credit policy with a view to facilitating the disbursement of agricultural loans to sharecroppers and landless farmers across the country.

Under the existing policies, sharecroppers, who are directly engaged in farming, will be entitled to receive agriculture loan.

The recovery of farm loans, however, rose to BDT 53.852 billion during the period under review from BDT 30.538 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal, the BB data showed.

BBN/SS/SI/AD-27January10-1:32 pm(BST)