ABOUT two lakh farmers across country are facing certificate cases for defaulting repayment of agricultural loans. The financial burden caused grave concern among the affected families, according to the farmers as well as the banks. Agricultural researchers and teachers said that farmers become loan defaulters for not getting just prices of produces or due to crop losses, as per a local daily report.
Bangladesh Krishak Samity leaders appealed to the government to waive interests on agricultural loans and create the opportunity of easier loan repayments by rescheduling payment of installments.
Bangladesh Bank General Manager of the Agricultural Credit Department Manoj Kanti Bairagi refused to provide any information, as per the report, but said that he was reviewing information provided by the farm credit lending scheduled banks about the certificate cases. He also said that newspaper reports on the certificate cases could be embarrassing for the government.
Approximately 1.15 lakh certificate cases are in the trial stage. Bangladesh Krishi Bank, Janata Bank and the Sonali Bank had filed the certificate cases against 1.15 lakh farmers for the recovery of defaulted loans worth Tk 360 crore. Until March 31, BKB was handling 81,743 certificate cases for the recovery of defaulted loans to the tune of Tk 270 crore, Janata Bank — 18,735 cases for the recovery of defaulted loans worth Tk 35 crore while Sonali Bank– 14,315 cases for the recovery of Tk 63.50 crore in defaulted credit.
The farmers represent the backbone of our economy and are our first bulwark for national food security. It should not be too difficult for the administration to figure out who is genuinely a defaulter and who is not. If we can bail out state run banks to the tune of over Tk 14 000 crores between 2011 and 2017 we can easily bail out our honest farmers who have defaulted due to no fault of theirs as these defaults occurred due to not getting just prices or due to crop losses due to natural conditions.
In fact we should be bailing them out –far better that they be bailed out than rich corrupt businessmen who invest the money abroad for buying property or for enriching themselves. Our farmers are ensuring food security for the nation. At the very least they deserve the economic patronage of the government. We can do no less for them.
