Atma Nirbhar Bharat Package for Farmers: Center to Provide Kisan Credit Cards to 1.5 Crore Dairy Farmers

The Government will provide Kisan Credit Card (KCC) to 1.5 crore dairy farmers across the states belonging to Milk Unions and Milk producing Companies within the next two months (1^st June-31^st July 2020) under a special drive, says the press release of Ministry of Animal Husbandry and Dairying on Monday. 

As per reports, the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying in association with Department of Financial Services has already circulated relevant circulars and KCC application format to all State Milk Federation and Milk Unions for implementing the same on a mission mode. 

Amid the 5.0 lockdown, the government has released this good news for all dairy farmers who were not able to avail the benefits of Kisan Credit Cards.  

Approximately 1.7 crore farmers are associated with 230 Milk Unions in the country under the dairy cooperative movement. 

As, dairy is among the fastest-growing sectors of the economy with a CAGR of above 6% in the last 5 years, providing short term credit to dairy farmers for meeting their requirements for working capital, marketing etc. will boost their productivity tremendously

How Diary Farmers can avail Kisan Credit Card? 

In the first phase of this campaign, the target is to cover all farmers who are members of dairy cooperative societies and associated with different Milk Unions and who do not have KCC. Farmers who already have KCC based on their land ownership can get their KCC credit limit enhanced, though interest subvention shall be available only to the extent of Rs 3 lakhs. Although the general limit for KCC credit without collateral remains Rs. 1.6 lakh, but the case of farmers whose milk is directly procured by Milk Unions falls under tie-up arrangements between the producers and processing units without any intermediaries, and hence the credit limits without Collateral can be up to Rs.3 lakh. Moreover, this will ensure more credit availability for dairy farmers associated with Milk Unions as well as assuring repayment of loans to banks. 

Rs.5 Lakh Crore in the Hands of Farmers suffering from the recent downturn of the economy 

The special drive to provide KCC to 1.5 crore dairy farmers is part of the Prime Minister’s Atma Nirbhar Bharat package for Farmers. Finance Minister on 15 May 2020 has announced to cover 2.5 crore, new farmers, under the KCC scheme. This will provide additional liquidity of Rs.5 lakh crore in the hands of farmers, who are suffering from the recent downturn of the economy.