ACD Circular No. 03: Agriculture loan facility for the flood affected farmers

Bangladesh Bank Chief Executive Motijheel, Dhaka-1000 Bangladesh Agriculture Credit Department 22 Joishtho, 1429 ACD Circular No.-03 Date: 05 June, 2022 Managing Director/Chief Executive All Scheduled Banks operating in Bangladesh Dear Sir, Regarding the provision of agricultural loan facilities to farmers affected by recent floods in the north-eastern region of the country. Recently, heavy rainfall and rising water levels in rivers, along with neighboring districts such as Sylhet and Sunamganj in the north-eastern region of Bangladesh, including Moulvibazar, Habiganj, Kishoreganj, and Netrokona, have caused sudden floods. Farmers in these areas involved in the crop/harvest, fish, poultry, and livestock sectors have been severely affected. In this situation, to compensate for the losses of farmers in flood-affected areas and to keep them engaged in agricultural work, the following instructions must be followed:

1. To help farmers in affected areas recover from losses and continue agricultural production, new loans must be distributed quickly to the crop/harvest, fish, poultry, and livestock sectors based on actual demand and reality, excluding the recovery of previously granted loans;

2. To distribute 200 (two hundred) crore Taka in loans under the special refinancing scheme of 3,000.00 (three thousand) crore Taka formed for distributing agricultural loans to farmers/customers at a 4% interest rate through ACD Circular No.-2 dated 14 September, 2021, issued by Bangladesh Bank, banks must ensure distribution by allocating a minimum of 20% of their unutilized balances to flood-affected Sylhet, Sunamganj, Moulvibazar, Habiganj, Kishoreganj, and Netrokona districts;

3. Agricultural loan recovery from affected farmers in the notified districts must be suspended for 06 (six) months from the date of issuance of this circular, and agricultural loan recovery from farmers who received loans through the Bank-MFIs linkage must also be suspended in the same manner for 06 (six) months;

4. Loan rescheduling facilities can be provided by relaxing the percentage of down payment; however, loans can also be rescheduled without any down payment considering the extent of the farmer's loss. Furthermore, even if installments of previously granted loans remain overdue, new loan facilities must be provided to farmers/customers;

5. Necessary measures must be taken to prevent the attachment of loans without filing any new attachment cases based on bank-customer relations, and the attachment of attached attachment cases must be temporarily halted, and arrangements must be made to resolve cases through Solonamar;

6. Necessary measures must be taken to provide loans for re-establishment of affected farmers, including raising ducks/chickens and cattle in the courtyard of their houses, producing and purchasing fodder, and other income-generating activities;

7. It must be closely monitored by the Chief Executive of banks and concerned regional executives that flood-affected farmers can avail themselves of new loan facilities on time according to actual demand and do not face any harassment in receiving loans;

8. In addition, the lead bank of the concerned district must monitor the loan distribution situation through meetings of the District Agricultural Loan Committee.

You are instructed to inform this department about the progress of the program taken in this regard by attaching the attached table by 30/09/2022. These instructions will be implemented immediately. Yours faithfully, (Md. Abdul Hakim) Director (ACD) Phone: 9530138

Attached Table Provision of agricultural loan facilities to affected farmers in various districts of the country due to recent floods: 2022 Name of Bank: Period: (In Lakh Taka) S.No. Name of District Name of Sector Number of New Loan Beneficiary Farmers Amount of New Loan Distributed Number of Rescheduled Loans Amount of Rescheduled Loans Number of Cases Resolved through Solonamar Amount of Loans Resolved through Solonamar Remarks