Chandigarh, June 2 (SocialNews.XYZ) In one of the crucial agricultural reforms to benefit 13 lakh farmers, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday announced the Kisan Credit Card (KCC), transforming a 26-year-old framework that had left cultivators dependent on inadequate institutional credit and vulnerable to private moneylenders.
The revamped policy significantly raises crop-wise credit limits in line with actual cultivation costs, lowers interest burdens, expands loan eligibility to high-value crops and allied sectors, introduces dedicated financial support for stubble management, and enables farmers to access funds through modern digital platforms such as ATMs and UPI.
Positioning the reforms as a major step towards making farming more profitable and sustainable, CM Mann told the media here that the new KCC framework would put more money directly into farmers’ hands, accelerate crop diversification beyond the wheat-paddy cycle, strengthen cooperative credit institutions, and help free cultivators from debt traps.
The reforms are expected to benefit over 13 lakh farmers across the state, with credit support for several crops rising sharply, including horticulture crops, where loans can now go up to Rs 1.57 lakh per acre compared to the earlier uniform limit of Rs 32,000 per acre.
CM Mann said, “This is not merely a policy change but a historic initiative aimed at the economic liberation of Punjab’s farmers. We have removed red tape, ensured that more money reaches farmers directly in their bank accounts, and made it easier for Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies and District Central Cooperative Banks to serve them efficiently.
“We have equipped our farmers with the digital tools of the 21st century, and they will now write a new growth story for Punjab.” Highlighting the significance of the reform, the Chief Minister said the government had broken 26 years of stagnation by replacing an outdated KCC system that had remained largely unchanged since 2000.
“For more than two decades, Punjab’s farmers were forced to depend on an outdated and cumbersome KCC framework built around manual paperwork, cheques and passbooks. Previous governments allowed this situation to continue. Our government has replaced that 26-year-old system with a transparent, digital and significantly upgraded credit structure designed around the needs of modern agriculture,” he said.
CM Mann said the revised policy would substantially increase the scale of finance available to farmers and ensure that institutional credit better reflects actual cultivation costs. “We have raised the scale of finance for wheat from Rs 24,380 per acre to Rs 30,000 per acre. Similarly, the scale of finance for paddy has been increased from Rs 25,440 per acre to Rs 39,000 per acre. This will provide farmers with the real financial support they deserve,” he said.
The Chief Minister said Punjab had once again emerged as a national leader by becoming the first state in the country to explicitly include crop residue management under the KCC framework. “Out of the revised Rs 39,000 per acre paddy limit, Rs 2,000 per acre has been earmarked specifically for crop residue management. For the first time in the country, farmers are being financially empowered to contribute to environmental protection through dedicated support for stubble management.”
CM Mann said the government had also taken unprecedented steps to support sugarcane growers. “The scale of finance for planted sugarcane crops has been increased from Rs 44,000 per acre to Rs 1 lakh per acre.” The Chief Minister said the revised KCC framework would also accelerate crop diversification and strengthen allied sectors.
“We are actively encouraging farmers to shift towards high-value crops. For the first time, agro-forestry crops such as poplar and bamboo, along with agro-horticulture crops like jamun, have been brought under the credit framework. We have also introduced a scale of finance for lemongrass, which will benefit farmers in the Shivalik foothills,” he added.
Source: IANS
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