Eng. Mohamed Reda Ismail, Minister of agriculture and land reclamation, approved the loan portfolio increase for development and agricultural credit banks from EGP 7 billion to EGP 7.7 billion, as these banks promised to raise the agricultural credit for young farmers by 10%, to be able to get the agricultural production requirements whose prices are increasing. Dr. Mohsen El-Batran, chairman of Principal Bank for Development and Agricultural Credit (PBDAC), said that the PBDAC's board approved this increase and it will be disbursed by March, the beginning of the summer agriculture season in which strategic crops are farmed such as cotton, rice, corn and sugar cane. El-Batran added that more than 90% of young farmers will benefit from raising the minimum limit of loans, as they own less than 3 feddans in the valley and delta, pointing out that these loans are with a subsidized interest rate for farmers, less than 5%. El-Batran said that Banks for Development and Agricultural Credit bore the burden of more than EGP 17 million as a result of writing-off delay fines of the cotton crop, as the Banks considered that Egyptian farmers suffered for the last months and that cotton prices was unstable. In accordance with the decree of the National Rescue Government of Prime Minister Kamal al-Ganzouri, there will be an EGP 250 million credit account to receive cotton crops stored with farmers from last season before farming the new crops of cotton for the benefit of farmers, El-Batran said. El-Batran called on the Parliament's agriculture and irrigation committee to discuss the Banks' credit policies with Banks' representatives in a way to meet the farmers' requirements as well as to contribute in the Banks' national projects for the benefit of young graduates and farmers, in order to limit the rates of rural-urban migration in search of jobs. Amwal Al Ghad
