The central bank of Bangladesh has lifted its farm credit disbursement target by 3.29 percent to 145.95 billion taka ($1.87 billion) for the current fiscal year 2013-14 to encourage sharecroppers to augment domestic food production.
Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman made the announcement at a press briefing here Tuesday.
He said higher agro-credit disbursement target will also help the country to reach the desired 7.2 percent GDP growth target for the current fiscal year (July 2013-June 2014).
Agricultural sector is one of the key driving-forces of Bangladesh's economy as it contributes almost 19 percent of the total GDP.
The governor, who also elaborated on farm-credit distribution guidelines, said banks had been instructed to ensure effective monitoring system so that only real farmers get the agricultural credit.
He said the central bank will continue the intensive monitoring of the whole system to reach the target of the program,e through four national, three specialized, 29 private and nine foreign banks.
The banks in the 2012-13 fiscal year (July 2012-June 2013) accomplished 146.67 billion taka ($1.88 billion) in agriculture loan disbursement or 103.8 percent of the set target of 141.30 billion taka ($1.81 billion), central bank data showed.
