Economic Survey 2023: Agriculture credit flow 13% more than the target of ₹16.5 lakh crore in 2021-22

The Economic Survey 2023 presented in Parliament on January 31 said the agriculture credit flow was about 13 percent more than the target of Rs 16.5 lakh crore in 2021–22. The target for the flow of credit to agriculture for 2022–2023 had been fixed at Rs 18.5 lakh crore.

The survey said that as a result of the initiatives and measures taken to strengthen existing policies, there has been a consistent increase in the agriculture credit flow over the years, exceeding the target every year for the past several years.

As of December 30, 2022, banks had issued Kisan Credit Cards (KCC) to 38.9 million eligible farmers with a KCC limit of Rs 4,51,672 crore, the report noted.

With the government extending the KCC facility to fisheries and animal husbandry farmers in 2018–19, the number of such cards in those sectors has also grown. As of October 17, 2022, 100,000 KCCs had been sanctioned for the fisheries sector and 950,000 as of November 4, 2022, for the animal husbandry sector.