BRAC Bank has moved quickly to support 8,500 farming families with a strong push in sustainable agri-finance that aims to make credit fast, simple, and useful for small farmers. Over the last two years the bank says it has disbursed BDT 593.9 million and reached nearly 35,000 rural people, helping them boost food production, raise incomes, and build more secure livelihoods in hard-to-reach and climate-vulnerable places. The bank focuses on smallholder and marginal farmers who often cannot get loans from regular banks. Through a digital agri-lending platform called Shubidha, farmers can apply with very little paperwork and get a credit decision in around 20 minutes without needing to visit a branch. To reach more areas and offer wider services, the bank teamed up with agri-tech firms and development groups, including Syngenta, iFarmer, Petrochem, and the Department of Agricultural Extension. These partners helped link farmers to better inputs, digital farm tools, and buyers, and also supported projects like cattle fattening and turmeric cultivation where the bank combined loans with marketing help. In specific drives the bank provided BDT 15.99 crore to 3,256 farmers across 22 districts, BDT 8.73 crore to 1,844 farmers for crop productivity and livelihood projects, and BDT 1.61 crore to 251 farmers in the northwest for maize, onion, potato, and rice. A pilot in char areas gave BDT 0.51 crore to 70 cattle farmers, and in coastal zones such as Khulna and Satkhira 134 farmers received climate-smart financing to cope with floods and saltwater threats. Livestock and dairy also saw strong support, with BDT 6.58 crore reaching 552 farmers and additional backing for farmer cooperatives through public–private coordination. The program broke down by purpose into thousands of small loans: for paddy, beef fattening, maize, potato, dairy, onion, turmeric, nut, soybean, poverty alleviation, chilli, and garlic, adding up to more than 8,400 targeted loans that match real farm needs. Short stories show the difference: a woman in Satkhira started crab farming with a small loan, repaid quickly, expanded her business, and hired two women; a farmer in Rangpur doubled his yield after buying better seed and a water pump, paid back part of the loan, and could send his daughter to college. Looking ahead the bank plans to add AI-based risk scoring and faster decision tools to make lending even more responsive so farmers can scale up, create agri-enterprises, enter export markets, and invest in value-added processing. The bank says this mission follows a simple idea: make finance work for the poor and help rural families build brighter futures.
