The financial expansion introduces substantial upward updates for the state's aquaculture sector alongside traditional farming.
The Punjab government has enacted a major policy shift by drastically upgrading the cooperative borrowing limits for all Kisan Credit Card (KCC) holders across the state. State cooperative banks will back these lines at a highly competitive, bottom-tier annual interest rate of seven percent, maintaining among the lowest lending benchmark in the regional agricultural sector.
Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann confirmed that this structural overhaul is designed to make institutional credit highly lucrative while actively incentivizing farmers to adopt comprehensive crop diversification. The financial expansion introduces substantial upward updates for the state's aquaculture sector alongside traditional farming.
The credit ceiling for white shrimp cultivation has been pushed to 5.50 lakh rupees per hectare, while general fish farming limits scale up to three lakh rupees per hectare. For core traditional crops, the revised framework provides significant immediate relief to growers.
Sugarcane credit thresholds have experienced a massive two-fold expansion to touch one lakh rupees per acre. Meanwhile, the borrowing ceiling for wheat rises to 30,000 rupees per acre, which now includes a first-time 2,000 rupee allocation reserved exclusively for managing stubble residue. To break the state's traditional monoculture cycle, the policy formally integrates high-value alternative cash crops into the banking net.
New per-acre lending thresholds grant farmers credit access reaching 1.57 lakh rupees for garlic, 92,686 rupees for Rabi onions, and 80,981 rupees for hybrid tomatoes. Remaining alternative allocations cover diverse horticultural options to broaden regional agricultural choices. This includes credit lines of 47,000 rupees for dragon fruit, 30,000 rupees for lemon grass, 23,000 rupees for jamun, 13,000 rupees for bamboo, and 2,000 rupees per acre for poplar trees.