Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday announced a major policy overhaul for Kisan Credit Card (KCC) holders, significantly increasing the cooperative loan limits for various traditional crops and adding new ones to encourage agricultural diversification across the state.
Addressing the media, Mann detailed the revised credit limits, highlighting that the loan ceiling for the wheat crop has been raised from Rs 24,300 to Rs 30,000 per acre. In a first-of-its-kind initiative, the state government will also provide a loan of Rs 2,000 per acre specifically earmarked for crop residue management.
Furthermore, the loan limit for sugarcane farmers has seen a substantial jump, increasing from Rs 44,000 per acre to Rs 1 lakh per acre.
As part of the state’s push toward crop diversification, several new crops have been integrated into the KCC scheme with dedicated loan structures. Farmers will now be eligible for loans of Rs 1.57 lakh per acre for garlic, Rs 92,686 per acre for the Rabi onion crop, and Rs 80,981 per acre for hybrid tomatoes.
The scheme also extends to lemon grass at Rs 30,000 per acre, ‘jamun’ at Rs 23,000 per acre, bamboo at Rs 13,000 per acre, and poplar farming at Rs 2,000 per acre. For fruit growers, a loan of Rs 47,000 per acre will be provided for cultivating dragon fruit.
The allied agricultural sectors have also received financial boosts under the new policy. In fisheries, the standard loan limit has been enhanced from Rs 2.50 lakh to Rs 3 lakh per hectare, while the credit limit for white shrimp farming has been increased from Rs 4.50 lakh to Rs 5.50 lakh per hectare. Concluding his address, Chief Minister Mann emphasised that these revisions would simultaneously help improve the financial health of the state’s cooperative banks, which currently claim to offer the lowest interest rate in Punjab at 7 per cent.
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Published By:
Akash Chatterjee
Published On:
Jun 2, 2026 19:04 IST
