(THE GIST OF PIB) Kisan Credit Card

(MARCH-2025)

In a sign of stress in the agriculture sector, scheduled commercial banks, excluding regional rural banks (RRBs), have seen a sharp increase of 42 per cent in bad loans Kisan Credit Card (KCC) accounts.

The Kisan Credit Card (KCC) scheme was introduced in 1998 for issue of Kisan Credit Cards to farmers on the basis of their holdings for uniform adoption by the banks so that farmers may use them to readily purchase agriculture inputs such as seeds, fertilizers, pesticides etc. and draw cash for their production needs.
The scheme was extended in 2004 to cover farmers' investment credit needs for allied and non-farm activities.
In Budget 2018-19, the government extended the Kisan Credit Card (KCC) facility to fisheries and animal husbandry farmers for meeting working capital needs.
Implementation: The Kisan Credit Card Scheme is implemented by Scheduled Commercial Banks, RRBs, Small Finance Banks and Cooperatives.

The Kisan Credit Card scheme aims at providing adequate and timely credit support from the banking system under a single window with flexible and simplified procedure to the farmers for their cultivation and other needs as indicated below:
To meet the short term credit requirements for cultivation of crops;
Post-harvest expenses;
Produce marketing loan;
Consumption requirements of farmer household;
Working capital for maintenance of farm assets and activities allied to agriculture;
Investment credit requirement for agriculture and allied activities.

Farmers - individual/joint borrowers who are owner cultivators;
Tenant farmers, oral lessees & share croppers;
Self Help Groups (SHGs) or Joint Liability Groups (JLGs) of farmers including tenant farmers, share croppers etc.