Status, trends and challenges of Kisan Credit Cards scheme in north eastern region of India

Kisan Credit Card here after; (KCC) is a credit delivery mechanism that is aimed at enabling farmers to have quick and timely access to affordable credit. It was launched in 1998 by the Reserve Bank of India and NABARD. Commercial Banks, Regional Rural Banks and Co-operative Banks are the three major rural financial institutions providing credit. The farmers in the North East Region mostly follow the traditional agricultural practices characterized by “low-inputlow- output” situation. The farmers in the North East Region have the lowest institutional credit flow in the country with less than 1 per cent share during the 2019-20 (Taloh and Kumar, 2021). Considering the above facts, the present study has been undertaken with the objectives of to examine the Status, trend and challenges in implementing KCC scheme in North Eastern Region of India and by using the secondary data in order to fulfil the above-mentioned objectives, the analytical tools used were Descriptive statistics and CAGR. It was observed that North Eastern Region shares about 1.86 % to the total India number KCC sanctioned to Animal Husbandry, Dairy and Fisheries Farmers in the recent years in which it shows a positive indication that the good number of farmers were registered in the North Eastern Region for KCC schemes under Animal Husbandry, Dairy and Fisheries Farmers and on an average North Eastern Region shared 3.79 % to the total India fish production which shows that the region has a greater potential and opportunity for enhancing the income of the farmers through integrating fish cultivation in production system and if more number of farmers would registered themselves under KCC schemes then it would tremendously help the farmers of the region to avail a greater benefits and profits from the schemes and therefore, KCC schemes plays a vital role in enhancing the income and economy of the NER farmers but in doing so it was found that there were various challenges faced by both the bankers as well as the farmers in Kisan Credit Card in the region which includes the Inappropriate use of Land Possession Certificate (LPC) for opening multiple KCC account in more than one bank, Unwillingness to create debt Burden etc., Based on the findings, the study suggests that land records/revenue records should be made readily available in both online and offline mode, which would facilitate easy verification by the banks.