Banks increase agri lending
Monowar hossain

The commercial banks put heavy stress on the distribution of agriculture loan for growing crops. As a result, other sub-sectors in the agriculture sector like fisheries, livestock have found place in the back row in the agriculture loan distribution operation. Why crop sub-sector received high priority over other sub-sectors in the agriculture needs thorough analysis leading to reviewing the agriculture loan distribution programme.
According to information available from the central bank, 8350 crores taka were distributed as agriculture loan among the farmers during the first eleven months (july-may) of the current fiscal. Of the amount distributed, 2825 crores taka loan went to crop sub-sector, 2420 crores taka to other agriculture sub-sectors and 1795 crores taka to the poverty alleviation area.
State-owned commercial banks distributed lion's share of these loans. They distributed 2605 crores taka as crop loan. The private sector banks virtually did not directed loans towards crop sub-sector. To purchase agriculture equipment and appliances, private sectors banks distributed loan in greater volume. Commercial banks distributed 180 crores taka in which the share of SCBs was 28 crores taka and that of PCBs was 152 crores taka. During the period under consideration, commercial banks distributed 438 crores taka loan in the Fisheries sub-sector in which the share of the state-owned banks was 305 crores and that of private banks was 133 crores taka.
In the poverty reduction area, the amount distributed by all the banks was 1795 crores taka. The SCBs distributed 1117 crore taka and the PCBs 679 crores taka.
The agriculture loan distribution during the first 11 months of the fiscal was in general a success story. About 90 per cent of the distribution target was achieved. Private sector banks hit hundred per cent of the target and the public sector banks over 80 per cent. But the point to ponder is that Fisheries and Livestock sub-sectors fell behind in the queue. These sub-sectors are most available sources of protein or nutrition in the country.
The reason behind directing more loans to the crop-sub sector is understandable. The government thinks that production of more crop would make food available to poor and low income groups and thus the lash of poverty would lose severity. But the fact remains that still a large segment of population cannot have food including granular food (rice ) two times a day regularly due to poor income. Poverty still grips them.
On the other hand, protein nutrition ( protein food) is becoming is becoming unavailable to the greater number of population due to the same reason, that is, poor or falling income. So, poverty is still at large.
According to a prominent economists and researcher Hossain Zillur Rahman, the face of poverty in the country has changed. It is difficult to find now a days that people died of starvation (without food), but scarcity of nutrition food is very much there. 'nutrition squeeze' is clearly noticed and has pervaded in the middle income families.
Paying less attention to the Fisheries and Livestock sub-sectors of Agriculture would make nutrition more scare to the fixed income middle class and low income groups, said nutrition experts.