The Bangladesh Bank on Tuesday increased the agricultural loan disbursement target for the current financial year, 2025–26, to Tk 39,000 crore, up by 2.63 per cent from the past year’s Tk 38,000 crore target.
The BB Governor, Ahsan H Mansur, announced the new target while unveiling the annual agricultural and rural credit policy and programme at a press conference held the central bank’s head office in Motijheel, Dhaka on Tuesday.
Deputy governors, head of the BFIU, chief economist, executive directors and top executives of scheduled banks were present.
Under the policy, all scheduled banks must prepare their own agricultural credit programmes in line with the central bank’s guidelines.
Any bank failing to meet its target will have to deposit the shortfall into the Bangladesh Bank’s agriculture and rural credit department without interest for refinancing to other banks.
BB officials described the policy as a key instrument to support economic growth and sustainable development.
Mansur said the revised target aims to boost agricultural production, control inflation and help achieve the GDP growth target.
Of the total allocation, Tk 13,880 crore is earmarked for state-owned commercial and specialised banks, while Tk 25,120 crore is for private and foreign banks.
The allocation for the livestock sector has been raised to 20 per cent from 15 per cent.
The policy also mandates that 55 per cent of total credit be directed to crops and grains, 13 per cent to fisheries, and 2 per cent to irrigation and agricultural machinery.
New crops such as cucumber, taro stems, beetroot, black cumin, ginger, garlic, turmeric, and date molasses have been added to the list of eligible items.
In addition, CIB service charges have been waived for loans up to Tk 2.5 lakh to encourage small-scale farmers to access credit.
Bangladesh Bank expects that an adequate credit supply to the agricultural and rural sectors will help boost crop production, stabilise prices, create employment and contribute to building a sustainable economy, said the governor.
To achieve these targets, banks can use their own networks — branches, sub-branches, agent banking, contract farming and group lending — and the bank-MFI linkage.
However, the amount of loans disbursed through the banks’ own networks must not be less than 50 per cent.
To improve efficiency, banks have been told to simplify disbursement procedures, ensure loans are provided before planting seasons, and tighten monitoring to prevent misuse.
In FY25, banks disbursed Tk 37,326 crore in agricultural and rural loans, slightly below the Tk 38,000 crore target and close to the Tk 37,154 crore disbursed in FY24.
The BB’s increased target reflects both rising demand for farm credit and its role in achieving broader macroeconomic stability.
