Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Atiur Rahman today urged the commercial banks to increase their credit flow in to agriculture sector particularly for setting up commercial dairy farms with bio-gas plants in the rural areas.

A coordinated dairy farm is not only environment-friendly, it also meets three basic demands of farmers- protein, fuel and fertiliser, he said.

The governor was addressing a function at Titli Tala of Jagannathpur upazila while visiting an Agrani Bank financed bio-gas and hybrid baokul and guava cultivation project.

Bangladesh has enormous capacity of establishing around 40 lakh coordinated dairy farms with four cattle in each, he said referring to a recent survey.

He said the dairy farms can yearly produce 480 crore cubic meter bio-gas, 120 million tonnes of high quality organic fertiliser, 1,700 crore liter milk and one million tonnes of meat apart from creating job for around 1.2 crore skilled and non-skilled rural people.

“So, it’s huge opportunity for commercial banks to pursue green business on integrated dairy farm and bio-gas plant,” Dr Atiur said adding that Bangladesh Bank has been trying to make the integrated dairy farm model popular among the people.

The governor said a small dairy farm with four cows and one bio-digester everyday can produce 17 liter milk, 100 kg organic fertiliser and 100 cubic biogas.

Director (news) of Channel-I Shykh Siraj, Managing Director of Agrani Bank Syed Abdul Hamid, government officials and locally distinguished persons spoke, among others, on the occasion.

Referring to the Bangladesh Bank’s Taka 200 crore re-financing scheme for solar power generation and waste management, the governor urged people to take the opportunity.

The governor lauded the Agrani Bank’s financing project for the bio-gas plant and hybrid baokul and guava cultivation in Pabna and said many commercial banks already invested their money for solar power generation.

He urged the commercial banks to invest more in such projects and said it’s very encouraging to see that the commercial banks are providing the farmers with credit for fruit cultivation.

“Such initiative will help farmers for cultivating high value crops, making the country more green and contributing to country’s economy,” said the governor. —BSS

Source: Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ Jan-10-2011