Rural banks increase agricultual lending

Strengthening agricultural lending has always been one of China's top priorities over the years. To sustain the development of the countryside and boost the rural financial service industry, some rural banks in east China's Anhui Province have launched a series of measures to promote lending in the agricultural sector.

Banks in Anhui Province have been promoting their rural loan services for years. Recently, some lenders in the region have further simplified their loan procedures to attract farmers. Some even have launched various promotional tours and door-to-door services.

Xia Yelong, Maanshan rabbit breeder, said, "I never thought I could borrow money from the bank one day. But one day I decided to give it a try, and called the bank. It only took 5 days for me to get a mortgage-backed 50,000 yuan loan. So I used the money and doubled my output. It's estimated that I could raise more than 50,000 rabbits in 3 years."

Many farmers in Anhui always thought getting a loan would be a mission impossible. But now many of them are even planning to apply for more bank loans this year to expand the scale of their farming business. Xia Yelong is planning to launch training programs to attract more neighbors to join his career.

Lv Hui, Marketing Manager of Anhui Maanshan Rural Commercial Bank, said, "To make it more convenient for farmers, we have opened a hot-line service. When an interested client makes a call, we will send someone from the bank right away to the applicant's home for research and investigation. "

The region's booming agricultural lending services have also benefited the life of its crab farmers. With start-up cash from the bank, each local crab farmer can haul in nearly 100,000 yuan in profits every year.

Xu Baogen, CRAB farmer, said, "I didn't save much while I was working as migrant worker over the years. I wanted to go home, but didn't have a lot of cash to start my own business. But one day I decided to call the bank for a loan application. I never thought I could get the money in just 7 days. "

The Anhui MaAnShan Rural Commercial Bank says, it had approval loan applications from 3,800 rural houses in 2009, worth over 190 million yuan. The credit volume was 3 times higher than a year ago.