Bangladesh Bank (BB)is going to announce agriculture loan policy on July 23 with a target to disburse Taka 14,595 crore for fiscal year 2013-14.

BB Governor Dr Atiur Rahman will announce the policy to give banks a guideline to reach farm credit to farmers properly and timely, a BB official told BSS.

Besides attaching priority to major crops, fisheries and livestock, the central bank is going to include some new items such as producing vermicompost fertilizer and orange farming in the loan policy.

The banks will be instructed to disburse farm loan through Taka-10 farmers’ account in order to increase the transparency in agriculture loan programmes.

Farmers will be able to seek BB’s help by dialing telephone No. 16236, if they face any problem about getting loans from banks

According to BB data, banks had collectively disbursed Taka 14, 667 crore, up by Taka 537 crore, against the target of Taka 14,130 crore in the just concluded financial year of 2012-13.

We’ve exceeded the disbursement target in the just concluded fiscal year . . . it is a record in history of disbursement of farm credit,” said the official. —BSS