Good News: 1.5 crore Dairy Farmers to Get Kisan Credit Card (KCC)

The Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying will be providing Kisan Credit Card to dairy farmers across the country, who belongs to milk unions and milk-producing companies in the next months. 

Nearly 1.7 crore farmers are part of the dairy cooperative moment and associated with 230 milk unions across the country.

The Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying and Department of Financial Services collaborated for this initiative, they asked all state milk federation and milk unions to implement this scheme swiftly.

Kisan Credit Card: 

The KCC scheme was implemented in 1998 by Indian banks under which farmers borrow money from banks at concessional rates in the form of loans. This scheme was prepared by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development on the recommendations of the famous R.V Gupta Committee to give loans for agricultural needs of farmers.

This special scheme to give KCC to 1.5 crore dairy farmers is part of the PM Narendra Modi announced Atma Nirbhar Bharat package for Farmers. On May 15, while announcing the third tranche of economic package Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said 2.5 crore farmers to be covered under the KCC scheme. 

During the implementation of the first phase of this scheme, farmers who all are members of dairy cooperative societies and associated with all different milk unions will be provided with KCC, if the dairy farmer does not have one at present. 

Farmers who already own KCC based on their land ownership can enhance their KCC credit limits, however, interest subvention shall be available up to the limit of Rs 3lakhs. The general limit of loan for KCC cardholder is Rs 1.6 lakh for without collateral, but farmers whose milk is directly produced by the milk unions come under the tie-up arrangements between the producer and process units in the country with no intermediates, hence the credit limit for KCC without collateral can go up to 3 Lakh. 

This scheme will provide an additional Rs 5lakh crores in farmer's hands who are experiencing the lockdown affects.

The dairy industry is one of the strongest growing sectors in India, according to the CARG report, the growth stands at 6 percent in the last 5 years. This scheme will provide cash in farmer's hands which can be used to boost their productivity.