New Delhi, March 11 (IANS) Over 7.72 crore Kisan Credit Cards (KCC) are active nationwide with outstanding loans of around Rs. 10.2 lakh crore, an official factsheet said on Wednesday.

The KCC platform has onboarded 457 banks after processing over 1,998.7 lakh credit applications, with 631.5 lakh processed through commercial banks, 337.2 lakh through regional rural banks and 1,030 lakh through cooperative banks, according to the statement.

The data reflects the broad institutional participation in the KCC implementation and highlights the central role of cooperative banks in extending agricultural credit, particularly at the grassroots level.

Recent reforms, including enhanced credit limits, expanded coverage to allied sectors, and digital integration through the Kisan Rin Portal, have significantly improved outreach, transparency, and governance.

By enabling data-driven monitoring, expediting loan processing, and ensuring transparent claim settlement, these measures have strengthened the operational efficiency of agricultural credit delivery, it added.

The government had raised the crop loan limit under the Modified Interest Subvention Scheme from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 5 lakh and increased fisheries and allied activity credit limits from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh.

Under the Kisan Credit Card (KCC), term loans and composite credit limits are structured differently for marginal and non-marginal farmers, considering their landholding size, investment capacity, and livelihood requirements.

A flexible limit of Rs 10,000 to Rs 50,000 may be sanctioned based on factors such as landholding size and cropping patterns. The composite KCC limit is to be fixed for a period of five years.

To streamline farmer onboarding and improve access to institutional credit, facilitative measures have been implemented under the Kisan Credit Card.

A simplified one-page KCC application form has been introduced, with basic applicant details pre-filled from banks’ PM-KISAN records, and farmers are required to submit copies of land records and information on the crops cultivated, the government noted.

—IANS

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