This was disclosed at a meeting between Finance Minister M Saifur Rahman and chief executive officers of the banks in Dhaka yesterday. The minister directed them to double the loan amount this fiscal to help farmers hit by the current flood.

Among these farm loan providing banks, only Bangladesh Krishi Bank (BKB) could achieve its target disbursing Tk 1,964 crore against the Tk 1,900 crore target for FY04. The amount was 103 percent higher than the goal.

The other specialised bank, Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank (Rakub), disbursed the second highest Tk 677 crore falling 4 percent behind its target of Tk 700 crore.

Sonali Bank, the largest state-owned bank, disbursed Tk 471 crore, well behind its target of Tk 625 crore, showing a 75 percent rate of disbursement.

During the period, Janata Bank had fixed a Tk 400 crore target for agricultural loan disbursement but the bank provided Tk 345 crore, 86 percent of the target.

Agrani Bank could disburse only Tk 248 crore out of the target of Tk 400 crore with an achievement rate of only 62 percent.

Finance Minister Saifur Rahman however praised the banks for disbursing agricultural loans and said, "The performance was excellent."

He asked the banks to increase agricultural loan disbursement this year as he found the amounts inadequate for the farmers. Farmers should get more loans to cope with the increasing rate of inflation, he felt.

Encouraged by last year's performance, this year BKB has targeted to disburse Tk 2,400 crore agriculture loans. However, the other banks are yet to fix their goals.

The meeting was informed that the nationalised banks have waived Tk 28.24 crore out of the total Tk 429.98 crore interests on outstanding agriculture loans of small and marginal farmers till mid-June this year.

The decision to waive interests on outstanding agriculture loans up to Tk 5,000 was taken at a cabinet meeting in March this year.

The meeting attended by Bangladesh Bank Governor Fakhruddin Ahmed, managing director of Karmasangsthan Bank and high officials of the agriculture ministry discussed loan distribution strategy during the current flood.