Banks will give out farm loans based on satellite data so that farmers get credit without any hassle and cultivate crops in the appropriate land and atmosphere.

The central bank has already taken a move to this end as per instruction given by the ICT division of the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunication and Information Technology, a central bank official said.

Farmers are now required to submit a number of physical documents to get farm loans while many banks spend one to two months to complete the credit disbursement process, he said.

There are many instances where farmers had been exploited by intermediary groups while availing the loans.

But the upcoming  satellite-based platform will help farmers get the credit within a maximum of three days, which will also decrease the operational cost of lenders.

Banks will implement the new system by way of using the global positioning system (GPS) and geographic information system (GIS).

The GPS and GIS will enable the coupling of real-time data collection with accurate land position information, leading to efficient manipulation and analysis of large amounts of geospatial data.

The GPS is a set of hardware and software designed to determine accurate locations on the earth using signals received from selected satellites. Location and associated data can be transferred to mapping and the GIS.

The GPS and GIS-based applications in precision farming will be used for farm planning, field mapping, soil sampling, crop scouting, yield mapping and so on, according to a central bank paper.

This is a new idea for the country, but many other countries including the United States have already implemented the technology, helping them to cultivate more crops than what they earlier produced, the official said.

The BB, however, is yet to set any deadline for completion of the process.

But the ministry in its letter sent to the central bank on June 11 said the new method would be implemented by 2021.

The central bank has recently organised a meeting internally to set a roadmap on ways to implement the new method.

As part of the move, the BB will form a committee soon, which will set a deadline to implement the programme.

Under the methods, farmers will also be able to achieve additional benefits by combining better utilisation of fertilisers and other soil amendments, determining the economic threshold for treating pest and weed infestations, and protecting the natural resources for future use.

The technologies will not only help banks but also farmers at tandem for selecting the proper crops matching the quality of land, soil and atmosphere, the BB official said. 

A detailed database of farmers from across the country will be created for implementation of the programme, the central bank official said.

As part of the move, the central bank has started creating a mobile app where farmers will provide their data in detail, including their national identity number, location, amount and registration number of their land, cultivated crops and so on.

“This means every farmer will open digital account through using the app. And all accounts will be gathered in the platform, which will be considered digital database,” the official said.

Farmers will apply for farm loans though their app, which will help banks verify their information by the GPS and GIS.

The GPS and GIS will help banks monitor the farm sitting at their office, which will bring down their operational costs.  

 The new system will ensure the viability of lenders’ farm loan disbursement programme as they will collect the detailed data relating to the quality of land and its surrounding atmosphere, where they will disburse farm loans. Abdul Baset, a farmer of Rowmari upazila of Kurigram, said he had repeatedly failed to get farm loans on time due to banks’ bureaucratic complexity.

“I have to run after banks to take farm loans in most of the cases. As a result, I did not cultivate crops on time,” he said.

The BB official said the existing farmers’ woes would decrease manyfold once the programme was implemented in a full-fledged manner.