The Government started a countrywide drive on Monday to distribute the Kisan Credit Card (KCC) to all eligible animal husbandry, dairy, and fishery farmers throughout the country, with the goal of enrolling two crore individuals in the next three months.
From November 15, 2021, until February 15, 2022, Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, and Dairy Parshottam Rupala will virtually start the "Nationwide AHDF KCC campaign." The government declared in the 2018-19 Budget that the KCC facility will be extended to animal husbandry producers and fishers to help them fulfill their working capital needs.
Rupala, who spoke at the event, stated that the campaign's goal is to supply KCCs to all qualified animal husbandry, dairy, and fishery farmers in the country, as well as ensure that they get institutional credit. This initiative is being coordinated by the Departments of Animal Husbandry and Dairy, Fisheries, and Financial Services.
On November 10, states received a circular with the specific rules for organizing this campaign. The Department of Financial Services has also provided the required guidelines to banks and state governments.
After the event, Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying Secretary Atul Chaturvedi told reporters that the country's animal husbandry and dairy industry employs 9-10 crore farmers, while the fishing sector employs 1.5 crore people. During the three-month campaign, he said, the Centre hopes to give KCC to about two crore eligible animal husbandry, dairy, and fishery farmers.
According to Chaturvedi, farmers may acquire a credit ceiling of Rs 1.6 lakh from the KCC without putting up any collateral. The goal of this programme, according to Jatindra Nath Swain, Secretary of the Department of Fisheries, is to extend credit card facilities to roughly 50 lakh fishermen. He claims that in the absence of institutional credit, fishermen must rely on money lenders who charge exorbitant interest rates.
"We have had a series of meetings in the last couple of weeks on how to step up the campaign in order to ensure that the departments' targets set in the form of issuance of credit cards to farmers across the country are achieved," Debashish Panda, Secretary of the Department of Financial Services, said. He added the animal husbandry, dairying, and fisheries sectors have a lot of job potential, and that they also help farmers earn more money.
In the previous year, the government has gained a lot of traction with KCCs, and the goal of issuing 2.5 crore credit cards has been met. Panda, on the other hand, believes that much more has to be done in the animal husbandry and fisheries sectors. He emphasised the importance of making aggressive efforts to collect applications on the ground. Panda stated that multiple meetings with state government officials and lenders had taken place in order to make this campaign a success.
Banks have been told to convert these applications into KCCs, and banks have also been told to create new cards specifically for this sector. This sector, according to Panda, will not die of funds. He stated that the three departments will closely monitor the campaign to ensure that the goals were me
Last year, from June 1, 2020, to December 31, 2020, a Special Drive was held to provide AHDF KCC to qualifying dairy farmers of Milk Cooperatives and Milk Producer Companies. According to an official release, nearly 14 lakh new AHDF KCC have been sanctioned as a result. "The livestock sector is critical to the Indian economy today, accounting for one-third of the agriculture and allied sector's GVA (gross value added) and growing at a CAGR of over 8%," it continued.
