Over 9,000 in agro livestock SME sector gets Rs. 1.4 b in loans

Nearly Rs. 1.5 billion had been disbursed to over 9,000 persons and small scale enterprises engaged agriculture and livestock sector under a concessionary loan scheme promoted by the Central Bank, a forum was told yesterday.

The Agro Livestock Development Loan Scheme (ALDLS) has been in operation since 2008 and by November this year, the disbursed amount was Rs. 1.47 billion to 9,137 borrowers, the Central Bank said.

The progress of the scheme was shared at a ceremony yesterday where performance of livestock development instructors was recognised.

The main objectives of the ALDLS are to enhance liquid milk production in the country, encourage farmers to adopt modern dairy farming techniques, develop agro based processing industries and generate more employment opportunities.

For these purposes the assistance and advice of the Veterinary Surgeons (VSs) and Livestock Development Instructors (LDIs) are obtained under the ALDLS.

Further, in consultation with the Ministry of Livestock and Rural Community Development an incentive package has been introduced for Livestock Officers.

Under this scheme, Veterinary Surgeons are responsible for enhancing the knowledge of the farmers by conducting classes covering several important areas of dairy farming such as construction of modern cattle sheds, food and water requirements of animals to provide better nutrition, identification and control of diseases of the cattle and the relevant treatments, artificial insemination, animal care, establishment of bio gas units and farm management.

With a view of popularising this scheme, Livestock Development Instructors (LDIs) have been given annual targets under four areas, i.e. introducing farmers to financial institutions, artificial insemination, tree and fodder cultivation and establishment of bio gas units.

Officers who achieve or surpass these annual targets are eligible to receive incentive payments from the Central Bank of Sri Lanka at the end of each year.

In 2008 and 2009 incentive payments were given to eight and 75 LDIs respectively and they were also awarded certificates for their achievements. In the year 2010 the number of achievers under the incentive scheme have increased to 108 LDIs.

As per the Central Bank in the year 2010 was 19,109 and the farmers who needed credit facilities were directed to the Participatory Financial Institutions (PFIs) by the LDIs. These PFIs include Bank of Ceylon, Peoples Bank, Pradeshiya Sanwardena Bank, Hatton National Bank, Commercial Bank, Sampath Bank, Union Bank, Sanasa Development Bank, DFCC Bank and Lankaputhra Development Bank.

Under the ALDL scheme, farmers could obtain loans up to Rs. 400,000 for the purposes of construction of cattle sheds, purchase of cows, purchase of concentration feed, veterinary services, drugs, construction of bio gas units and any other requirements recommended by Veterinary Surgeons through ten Participatory Financial Institutions (PFIs) at an interest rate of eight per cent per annum.

Liquid milk processing industries are also eligible to receive bank loans under this loan scheme up to a maximum of Rs. 300 million at an interest of 12 per cent per annum with a maximum repayment period of five years for the purpose.

More details of this loans scheme could be obtained from VSs and LDIs, Branches of PFIs or from the Regional Development Department of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

This loan scheme is implemented by the Regional Development Department of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.