With providing Taka 300 crore to around 40,000 entrepreneurs in agribusiness in the recent months, Brac Back has expedited its SME financing scheme.

The private bank, which pioneered launching of ‘Krishak Card’, has undertaken a number of initiatives for providing easy finances to farmers. The finance covers lending to different non-traditional sectors that are out of traditional credit coverage.

In a release issued Saturday, Brac Bank said many farmers particularly in the country’s northern region had benefited greatly with financing from this bank for no-traditional crop farming including various types of spices.

For instance, the bank cited that Md Helal, a farmer of Goneshpur village, Mokamtola in Bogra this year grew ginger in only one bigha of land by taking a loan of Taka one lakh from Brac Bank. He is now expecting an yield worth around taka six lack.

Referring to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), the bank said currently ginger is cultivated in 22,000 acre of land producing 74,000 metric ton annually.

The production would go up should more farmers start ginger farming, which would eventually help meet domestic demands of the largely used and essential spice.