Agricultural Loan

An Agriculture / Livestock Micro Loan is a small-ticket loan offered by microfinance institutions (laghubitta bittiya sanstha), agriculture cooperatives, and the rural/deprived-sector windows of banks to smallholder farmers and rural micro-entrepreneurs in Nepal for crop farming, vegetable and floriculture, poultry, fishery, beekeeping, agro-processing, and buying livestock (buffalo, cow, goat, pig, chickens). It is typically extended to members of a center/group (samuha) under a group-guarantee model, so small loans are usually collateral-free and backed by the joint liability of group members, while larger amounts require land/property collateral. Loans are disbursed at the local branch within the borrower's working area, frequently at subsidized/priority rates under Nepal Rastra Bank's deprived-sector lending and the government's interest-subsidy (sahuliyatpurna karja) scheme. Repayment is in small periodic installments (weekly/monthly/quarterly) aligned with the crop or livestock cash-flow cycle.