Impact of Kisan credit card on farm productivity and farmer’s economy in Odisha: An empirical evaluation

Kisan Credit Card Scheme (KCC) was initiated in August 1998 by NABARD. At present it is implemented by three organizations namely commercial banks, cooperative banks and regional rural banks. KCC is a form of revolving cash credit facility that enables farmers to withdraw and repay funds to meet their various credit requirements. The KCC is helpful in strengthening relationship between financial institutions and agricultural producers. The sanctioned amount under KCC was increased from Rs 8582.00 crores in 2008-09 to Rs 501192.00 crores up to march 2023 in the country. In Odisha presently about 96.76 lakh KCC have been issued with sanctioned amount of Rs 446.89 crores by cooperatives, commercial banks and regional rural banks. Though in Odisha there are 78,60,651 registered farmers as per agricultural action plan 2019-20 and out of it only 31,56,838 farmers (40.16%) were issued KCC across the state since its inception. Since inception to till date, many farmers were benefited from the scheme and it is the time to access the impact on farmers in Odisha. In this background present paper constructed with broad objectives i.e. to access the extent of KCC fund utilized by the respondent and to evaluate the socio-economic impacts of KCC scheme in the sampled areas. A total of 160 (comprising 80 from KCC beneficiaries and 80 from Non KCC) households selected through stratified random sampling technique formed the sampled size. The data were collected through a well-structured questionnaire during the year 2021-2022.The study finds that KCC beneficiaries were more advantageous position in way of leaving, use of modernize agriculture, avail good education, health, service in tertiary sector with compared to non KCC beneficiaries. Lead banks of the districts may give emphasis on popularization, motivation and adoption of the scheme by a large number of farmers in sampled areas to increase farm productivity, farmers income and socio-economic condition.