Smallholder farmers and agri-businesses in Bangladesh continue to face significant challenges in accessing the financial resources essentials for their growth, experts said at a workshop Thursday.

USAID Feed the Future Bangladesh Inclusive Access to Finance (IAF) Activity, implemented by Palladium International in partnership with SAJIDA Foundation, successfully hosted the stakeholder consultation workshop in Dhaka.

The event brought together policymakers, high officials from financial institutions, and other key stakeholders to validate the preliminary findings of the assessment “Access to Finance Landscape and Inclusive Development in Bangladesh (AFLID)”.

 The IAF activity aims to address the challenges and enhance access to finance in the agriculture sector.

 The assessment examined the current state of agricultural financing, focusing on barriers faced by the sector’s micro-, small- and medium-scale enterprises as well as individual farmers, particularly women and youth, and the roles of financial institutions and government agencies in improving access to agricultural finance.

The preliminary findings from the assessment showed that lending institutions face different barriers to agriculture lending, including high operation costs, information asymmetry among borrowing groups, lack of financial literacy among borrowers, and unpredictable weather.

 The workshop featured engaging discussions and valuable insights on the findings of the assessment.

 The participants validated opportunities to improve agriculture financing through developing specialised credit products, improving operational efficiency, creating a stronger and digitised system for assessing and distributing loans, and improving collaboration between the regulators and lending institutions.  Presiding as the chief guest at the event, Kazi Rafiqul Hassan, executive director of Bangladesh Bank, emphasised the government’s commitment to addressing the barriers faced by the agriculture sector stakeholders.