Agriculture finance and government initiatives in escalating viable financial services to the sector

Agriculture is back bone of Indian economy which provides employment and livelihood to a large section of the Indian population. As per ILO estimate of 2018, approximately 44% of the working population is employed in the agriculture and allied sector. The vast farming area, diverse agriculture and a large population dependent on agriculture and also…

Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY) features

Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY) has been formulated in 2015 by amalgamating ongoing schemes viz. Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP) of the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation (MoWR, RD&GR), Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP) of Department of Land Resources (DoLR) and the On-Farm Water Management (OFWM) of Department of Agriculture…

Collateral free agricultural loan limit enhanced up to 1.60 lakh

Currently the banks are mandated to extend collateral-free agriculture loans up to Rs.1 lakh. This limit of Rs.1 lakh was fixed in the year 2010.In view of overall inflation and rise in agriculture input cost since 2010, Reserve Bank of India vide its circular RBI/2018-19/118 FIDD.CO.FSD.BC.No.13/05.05.010/2018-19 dated February 7, 2019 advised all the scheduled commercial…

Kisan Credit Card (KCC) Scheme for Animal Husbandry and Fisheries

Pursuant to the announcement in the interim budget 2019, the Reserve Bank of India carried out circular asking banks to extend the facilities of Kisan Credit Card (KCC) to Animal Husbandry farmers and Fisheries to help them meet their working capital requirements. According to RBI circular FIDD.CO.FSD.BC.12/05.05.010/2018-19 dated Feb 4, 2019, the new KCC facility…