Less government loans push farmers to high-interest public loans (Prothom Alo)

Bangladesh’s Daily Prothom Alo reported on the finding that the country’s farmers take out higher-interest loans from the private sector because few low-interest government loans are available. The article drew from a 2015 IFPRI assessment quoting Akhter Ahmed, who said farmers take out loans to buy agricultural inputs, so if rates were lowered, production costs would go down and farmers would not have to make losses each year.