Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) – The central bank of Bangladesh has relaxed its credit policy aiming to facilitate disbursement of agricultural loans to sharecroppers and landless farmers across the country.
Under the new policies, sharecroppers, who are directly engaged in farming, will be entitled to receive agriculture loan, officials said.
Currently, sharecroppers are not entitled to receive agricultural loan from the banks since they do not have ownership over land.
The central bank of Bangladesh has already issued a circular in this connection asking all scheduled banks, Bangladesh Rural Development Board (BRDB) and Bangladesh Samobaya Bank Limited (BSBL) to follow the changed policy for disbursement of the agro-credit.
“We have relaxed the policy aiming to ensure food security of the country through strengthening disbursement of agricultural loan to cultivators particularly sharecroppers and landless farmers,” a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB), the country’s central bank, told BBN in the capital, Dhaka.
On September 29, 2008, the BB made it mandatory for all local and foreign commercial banks to disburse agriculture credit from this fiscal to help ensure food security of Bangladesh.
The central bank has also introduced a ‘Revolving crop credit limit system’ for a three-year term to gear up disbursement of the farm loan.
Under the new system, the farmers will not be required to apply afresh every time for agricultural credit.
BBN/SI/AN/AD-24October08-9:42 PM (BST)
