ALOR SETAR, June 19 (Bernama) -- Agrobank will disburse more loans under the paddy planting programme, in the next planting season, to increase the number of paddy farmers and to lure them to become its customers.

Its Managing Director Datuk Ahmad Said said the bank would now offer a loan of RM2,500 to cultivate per hectare of paddy land against RM1,400 given out previously.

He said loans for paddy cultivation must be stepped up as it was a niche business which offered good returns to the bank.

"Our records show that unlike big loans, we don't have much problems with smaller loans. So we will concentrate on small loans and the paddy cultivation market," he told reporters after launching Agrobank's Business Carnival on Saturday.

Ahmad said the bank received an average annual funding of RM500 million from the government and, todate, had RM1.3 billion in funds available for disbursement.

"We have about 300,000 borrowers and 75 per cent of them borrowed from the government funds and the remainder secured loans from our deposits. Anually, we have 15,000 new customers, each year.

"In six months of last year, we had about 20,000 borrowers who secured loans under the economic stimulus packages and the repayment rate is about 90 per cent," he said.

Earlier in his speech, Ahmad said the two-day carnival, held for the first time since the bank was corporatised in 2008, was targetted at agro-entreprenuers, small-and-medium entreprenuers, businessmen, investors and the public to obtain information on the bank's products and services.

It also offered businessmen, who secured loans from the bank, to showcase their products.

-- BERNAMA