Ensuring hassle-free credit availability at a cheaper rate to farmers has been the top priorityof the Government of India. Accordingly, the Kisan Credit Card Scheme (KCC) was introduced in 1998 for farmers to empower them to purchase agricultural products and services on credit at any time. As of 30 December, 2022, banks issued Kisan Credit Cards (KCC) to 3.89 crore eligible farmers with a KCC limit of ₹4,51,672 crore. With the Government of India extending the KCC facility to fisheries and animal husbandry farmers in 2018-19, the number of such cards in the fisheries and animal husbandry sector has also grown. As of 17 October 2022, 1.0 lakh KCCs have been sanctioned for the fisheries sector and 9.5 lakh (as of 4 November 2022)
for the animal husbandry sector. To ensure that the farmers pay a minimal interest rate to the banks, the Government of India has introduced the Interest Subvention Scheme (ISS), now renamed Modified Interest Subvention Scheme (MISS), to provide short-term credit to farmers at subsidised interest rates. Under this scheme, short-term agriculture loan up to ₹3 lakh is available at 7 per cent per annum to farmers engaged in Agriculture and other Allied activities, including Animal Husbandry, Agriculture and Food Management: From Food Security to Nutritional Security 247 Dairying, Poultry, Fisheries etc. An additional 3 per cent subvention (Prompt Repayment Incentive) is also given to the farmers for prompt and timely repayment of loans. Therefore, if a
farmer repays his loan on time, he gets credit at 4 per cent per annum.