Abu Sazzad :Twelve scheduled commercial banks of the country failed to achieve the agriculture loan disbursement target in the first seven months (July to January) of the current fiscal. The 12 banks are National Bank of Pakistan, Commercial Bank of Ceylon, Bank Al-Falah, Farmers Bank, Bangladesh Development Bank, Dhaka Bank, Meghna Bank, Modhumoti Bank, NRB Commercial Bank, NRB Global Bank, Prime Bank, and South Bangla Agriculture and Commerce Bank.Maximum banks disbursed below 30 per cent of their annual targets of loan disbursement to farmers. Of them, National Bank of Pakistan, Commercial Bank of Ceylon and Bank Al-Falah did not disburse any farm loan in the period.Although these banks have failed to fulfill their disbursement target, the farm loan disbursement increased by 18.74-per cent in the first seven months of the current financial year compared with the corresponding period of the FY15.The banks disbursed Tk 10,079.45 crore in farm loans in the July-January period of the FY16 against Tk 8,488.44 crore in the same period of the FY15. In the first seven months of the ongoing fiscal, the eight state-owned commercial and specialised banks including Sonali, Janata, Agrani, Rupali, BASIC, BDBL, Bangladesh Krishi and Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan together disbursed Tk 5,220.97 crore in farm loans. The amount is 56.20 per cent of their annual loan disbursement target of Tk 9,290 crore.The private and foreign commercial banks together disbursed Tk 4,858.48 crore in agriculture loans in July-January of the FY16. The amount is 68.33 per cent of their total annual loan disbursement target of Tk 7,110 crore.The BB will take punitive action like the previous years against the banks which will not take required steps to speed up farm loan disbursement programme, said a senior BB official.The banks are now being compelled to disburse the farm loan in line with their financial year's target as the central bank had earlier said that they (banks) would have to deposit the entire fund of their undisbursed agriculture loans in a blocked account with the BB.The central bank took the move as a punishment measure. The central bank implemented the rule from this financial year, he also said. The BB will return the fund to the respective banks if they disburse the undisbursed amount with their fresh targets for the next financial year, also said the BB official.For this reason, the banks are now more cautious to fulfill their annual farm loan disbursement target to avoid the punishment measure set by the central bank, he said.The BB official said that the central bank had already asked the banks to speed up the farm loan disbursement programme.Center Policy Dialogue (CPD) Executive Director Mustafizur Rahman said, every year Foreign Commercial Banks failed to fulfill their annual disbursement target due to their illogical banking policy.They (FCBs) do not have any rural branches, so they deliberately avoid the disbursement target, he claimed. FCBs can make a liaison with the Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) to achieve their disbursement target of SME and agriculture loan, which will reduce the risk management factors, suggested the CPD Executive. Adequate SME and agriculture loan are important to attain a sustainable economy, he pointed.