Dhaka Signs $300 million World Bank Deal to Keep Fertilizer Flowing for Rice Seasons
The concessional funding will support imports of about 600,000 tonnes of fertiliser for smallholder farmers during the Aman and Boro planting cycles.
Dhaka — Bangladesh has locked in $300 million in concessional World Bank financing to keep fertiliser available for smallholder farmers through the next two rice seasons, after global price and supply shocks tied to conflict in the Middle East.
The Economic Relations Division of the Ministry of Finance and the World Bank's International Development Association signed the agreement on Monday in Dhaka. ERD Secretary Md Shahriar Kader Siddiky signed for the government. Jean Pesme, the World Bank's division director for Bangladesh and Bhutan, signed for the lender.
The money, equal to SDR 219.2 million, funds the Emergency Support for Food Security Project. The Finance Division will carry it out with the Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation and the Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation. The project window runs from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027.
The aim is narrow and time-bound: make sure eligible fertiliser reaches farmers in the critical planting windows. Bangladesh imports more than 85 percent of the fertiliser it uses. When global urea and other nutrient markets tighten, planting calendars slip and rice output is the first thing at risk.
The World Bank approved the project in June as part of a wider $1.1 billion emergency package. Under this $300 million slice, the plan is to finance imports of about 600,000 metric tons of fertiliser — roughly half of it urea — covering about 1.4 million hectares of rice grown by smallholders. That support is timed for the Aman season, from July to October 2026, and the Boro season, from October 2026 to April 2027. Together those two seasons account for about 90 percent of national rice production, and agriculture still employs about half the workforce.
Terms are soft by commercial standards. Interest is 1.5 percent on amounts drawn. The maturity is 25 years, with a five-year grace period. A commitment fee of up to 0.50 percent can apply on undrawn balances, though the World Bank has waived that fee for Bangladesh for several years, including the current fiscal year.
Officials framed the deal as a buffer, not a new subsidy regime. The point is to stop a temporary import shock from turning into a harvest shortfall, higher rice prices, and pressure on poor households. The World Bank remains Bangladesh's largest multilateral development partner, and the signing extends that relationship into the food-security side of the current external shock.
Whether the fertiliser actually arrives on time now depends on procurement and distribution through BCIC and BADC before the planting peaks, not on the signature itself.