KULOB, March 30, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- In 2008, the government gave 27,471,796 somoni through local banks to farming units in four districts of Khatlon’s Kulob region for cotton sowing and harvesting campaign and only 34.78 percent (11,676,523 somoni) of that has been repaid so far, according to the branch of the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT) in Kulob.

In all, branches of banks in the Kulob region provided 40,035,267 somoni in loans, including their own funds, to local cotton farmers last year.

Amonatbonk’s (Tajikistan’s savings bank) branches in the Kulob region have repaid 74.78 percent of the government credit, while Agroivnestbonk’s branches that provided more than the half of the government credit in the region have repaid only 22.4 percent so far.

We will recall that the farmers’ loans should be repaid by April 1, but the fall in the international price of cotton and in demand for the product has hurt many Tajik farmers.

Agroinvestbonk on March 4 asked the government to postpone debt repayments for Tajik farmers until the end of the year.   The bank said the most farmers would not be able to repay their loans until the end of the year, but if they don''t the bank could seize their property.