The Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) has revealed that farmers and agricultural projects were granted investment loans of EGP 13.8bn in fiscal year (FY) 2018/19. The figures reflect a 2.3% decline compared to the EGP 14.2bn awarded in FY 2017/18.
In its annual bulletin of agricultural sector cooperative activity in FY 2018/19, published on Tuesday, CAPMAS indicated that short-term loans reached EGP 6.2bn. The figure reflected a decrease of 19.9% compared to EGP 7.7bn in FY 2017/18, due to a 24.8% decrease in livestock loans.
The agency added that total medium-term loans reached EGP 7bn in FY 2018/19, compared to EGP 6.2bn in FY 2017/18, with an increase of 12.1%.
The bulletin also showed that the total long-term loans amounted to EGP 691.6m in FY 2018/19 compared to EGP 243.2m in FY 2017/18, reflecting an increase of 184.4%. This was due to the increase in loans for establishing reclamation and cultivation orchards, and loans for youth and workers.
CAPMAS indicated that the number of agricultural cooperative societies amounted to 5,798 in FY 2018/19, of which 4,310 were cooperative societies for agricultural credit, accounting for 74.3% of societies.
This was followed by cooperative societies for agrarian reform at 761 societies, reflecting 13.1%, and cooperative societies for reclaimed lands accounting for 10% or 626 branches. There were a total of 101 Water Resources Cooperative societies, accounting for 1.8% of the total number of agricultural cooperative societies.
