Kuwait Goodwill Fund (KGF) Program
The Kuwait Goodwill Fund (KGF) program is implemented by PKSF with grant support from the Government of Kuwait. The Fund was established by His Highness the Emir of Kuwait to support achievement of food security and ensuring basic food requirements of the people of Islamic countries. To this end, PKSF is providing financial and technical assistance to the members at the grassroots. The main features of the program are to disburse loans at flexible service charges and collecting repayment in accordance with harvesting time of a crop, capacity building in implementation of agricultural activities and extension of sustainable agricultural technologies.
Under KGF, loan activities are currently being implemented in 79 upazilas of 29 districts through 40 POs and technology transfer activities are being implemented in 92 upazilas of 34 districts, falling in 26 agro-ecological zones, through 37 POs.
Progress of The program
Since the inception of the KGF program in June 2011, financial assistances were provided to 6,62,400 members of whom 78% are women. The savings balance of these members is BDT 39.53 crore. Till June 2023, under the program, the cumulative loan disbursement at the field level was BDT 3,246.67 crore. The outstanding amount was BDT 229.85 crore and the recovery rate was almost 100%.
In the financial year 2022-23, BDT 179 crore was disbursed in loans. A budget of BDT 3.48 crore was allocated for the implementation of technical activities at the field level. Till June 2022, 534 demonstrations on crop cultivation, 792 on fisheries and 1,095 on livestock have been implemented through 38 POs with the KGF program’s support.
Achievements
a) i) Credit Assistance
KGF program since its inception in June 2011 provided credit services to 8,45,900 members under 11,820 groups, more than 76% of whom are women.
The total savings by these members stood at BDT 34.31 crore. Up to March 2022, a total of 38 Partner Organizations (POs) disbursed BDT 2,627.88 crore to its members.
Currently, the loan outstanding stands at around BDT 224.46 crore with a recovery rate of about 100%. Nearly 53% of this loan is used in crop cultivation, 34% in beef fattening and livestock production, and the rest in fisheries and other farm-related activities.. Details credit assistance trend of KGF Program is shown in Table 1.
Capacity Building Assistance
a) Technology Transfer: Up to June 2022, a total of 5,205 demonstrations (1,690 crop-related, 1,518 fisheries-related and 1,997 livestock-related) of the Integrated Agriculture Unit were implemented with financing from the KGF program through 38 Partner Organizations.
b) Piloting of innovative agricultural technology: The KGF program is implementing two projects on specific technologies. These are a) Production and post-harvest management of mango variety Gouromoti and Malta in the two-storied orchard system in Chapainawabganj, and b) Quality betel leaf production for income and employment generation in Rajshahi.