ARDB Denies Reports That It Extended Credit to Rice Mills to Buy Paddy from Farmers

The Agricultural and Rural Development Bank (ARDB) has issued a clarification and denied false reports that it had extended credit to rice mills to purchase paddy from farmers. In a notice on its procedures for providing loans to rice mills, dated August 25, 2026, ARDB said that recent reports and comments claiming the bank had provided loans to rice mills on a deferred-payment basis were inaccurate and inconsistent with the bank’s loan approval and disbursement procedures.

In this regard, ARDB made the following points concerning claims that the bank provided loans to rice mills on a deferred-payment basis to purchase paddy from farmers:

1. Loan approval and disbursement procedures

Loans to rice mills are provided in accordance with ARDB’s credit policies and procedures. Applications are assessed based on business capacity, working capital requirements, repayment capacity and other relevant credit conditions. After a loan has been approved and the necessary conditions have been met, the full approved loan amount is deposited into the rice mill customer’s account, in accordance with the facility approved by ARDB. This is standard practice for business lending in the banking system.

2. Monitoring the use of loan funds

To ensure that loans are used in accordance with the approved policies, conditions and purpose, ARDB has been and continues to regularly monitor and inspect customers’ use of loan funds in line with the bank’s procedures.