4
12. In majority of the districts, SOF is prescribed as a fixed amount for various
crops. In some districts (e.g. Gaya & Begusarai in Bihar, Moradabad in UP), SOF
is prescribed as a range of values instead of a fixed amount.
Application for KCC loan & Appraisal by Branch Managers
13. All the 32 banks covered in the study had their unique application cum appraisal
forms but only some of those had re-designed it keeping in view the revised KCC
guidelines (Mar/ May 2012) incorporating provisions for year-wise/ component-
wise sub-limits of the KCC limits. There were few banks (e.g. Bihar Gramin
Bank) which had also printed the ‘scale of finance’ in its KCC application form.
Fixation of Kisan Credit Card Limit
Use of Cropping Pattern & Scale of Finance
14 As observed from the application cum appraisal form of the sample farmers, in
434 cases (61% of the sample), KCC limits were fixed taking into account both
Kharif as well as Rabi crops. In rest of the cases, either only kharif crop (35% of
the sample) or only Rabi crop (4% of sample) were considered for fixing of KCC
limit. It was observed that almost similar type of cropping pattern was shown
for majority of the farmers in a particular bank branch which speaks about the
non-seriousness in filling up the appraisal form.
15. ‘Scale of Finance’ (SOF) is another important parameter for the fixation of KCC
limit. The SOF was found to have been applied in the majority of the cases of
sample farmers, however, the place for the same was found blank in the appraisal
form in a few cases irrespective of the type of the agency (commercial banks,
RRBs or cooperative banks). In fact hardly any appraisal form of any bank was
found complete in all respect.
16. Most of the branch managers opined that due to very high work load in the
branch, they hardly got any time to pay a visit to farmer’s field to verify the
cropping pattern being followed by them. Further, change in cropping pattern
was neither reported by the farmer nor ascertained by the bank in most of the
cases while considering the enhancement in the KCC limit next year onwards.
Annual Enhancement in KCC Limit
17. Of total sample of 714 farmers the KCC limit was found to have been enhanced
every year only in 79 cases (11% of sample). The irregular repayment performance
of the borrower was the major reason for not enhancing the KCC limit of the
said borrowers. Non-willingness of both the bankers as well as the famers to go
beyond the KCC limit of Rs. 1.0 lakh to avoid ‘mortgage of land’ in some cases
and not going beyond Rs. 3.0 lakh in some other cases due to non-availability
of interest subvention (available for loan up to Rs. 3.0 lakh) were other very
important reasons for non-enhancement of KCC limits.
18. The practice of adding 10% & 20% towards consumption & farm maintenance
was being followed by commercial banks and RRBs but it was an academic
