Issuance of Jan Samarth based Kisan Credit Cards to be enabled to five states, says FM

The government will work on enabling issuance of Kisan Credit Cards (KCC) in five states, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said. “Further, the issuance of Jan Samarth based Kisan Credit Cards will be enabled in 5 states,” Sitharaman said in her union budget speech in the parliament.

KCC was introduced in 1998 for the issue of the 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 further extended for the investment credit requirement of farmers viz. allied and non-farm activities in the year 2004.

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Additionally, the government will also facilitate the implementation of the Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) for the agriculture sector. "15. Buoyed by the success of the pilot project, our government, in partnership with the states, will facilitate the implementation of the digital public infrastructure (DPI) in agriculture for coverage of farmers and their lands in 3 years," Sitharaman said.