Department of Fisheries, Government of India organised a webinar on “Nationwide Campaign on Kisan Credit Card (KCC) for Fisheries Sector” on 23nd December, 2021 as a part of “Azadi Ka Amrit Mohatsav” on the occasion of a special week earmarked for the Department of Fisheries from 20.12. 2021 to 26.12.2021. The event was presided over by Jatindra Nath Swain, Secretary, Department of Fisheries (DoF) and attended by more than 400 participants including officials of the department and fisheries officials of different states and union territories, faculties from state agriculture, veterinary and fisheries universities, various national and co-operative banks, entrepreneurs, scientists, farmers, hatchery owners, students and stakeholders from aquaculture industry across the country.
In his inaugural address, Union Secretary, Fisheries, Swain highlighted background and diversity of the fisheries sector and added that the facility of Kisan Credit Card (KCC) in the fisheries sector is an attempt to help the fishers and farmers to meet their working capital needs aiming at providing adequate and timely credit support to all the farmers. Further, Swain added that a nationwide campaign is currently being organised from 15th November 2021 to 15th February 2022 to ensure the coverage of all the stakeholders. Swain also requested the states and UT authorities to regularly monitor the progress of saturation of eligible fishers and fish farmers under KCC and take follow-up action with the concerned banks for removing shortcomings and ensure early sanction of KCCs.
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Sagar Mehra, Joint Secretary (Inland Fisheries) delivered the opening remarks Mehra stated that the Department of Fisheries, Government of India has been involved in taking groundbreaking and continuous efforts to encourage and expand aquaculture and fisheries in both inland and marine sectors in India and extension of KCC facility aim to expand the access to institutional credit facility to achieve socio-economic transformation of the lives of fish farmers and fishermen. Further, Mehra discussed about the ongoing nationwide campaign to saturate the eligible beneficiaries in association with the Department of Financial Services and Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying along with state departments and banks.
During the technical session, Suresh Kumar K, General Manager, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), Mumbai made a comprehensive presentation on the mandates, forms of credit, priority sectors, and investments in fisheries sector component, eligibility for KCC, application procedure of KCC for fisheries, the scale of finance, details of the process of Kisan Credit Card, interests, and subventions.
After the presentation, an open discussion was held with the fish farmers, fishermen, states and UT fisheries departments, banks, co-operative societies, entrepreneurs, hatchery owners, students and scientists which was led by Sagar Mehra. Participants raised the issues like financial support for KCC, the nodal point of contact for KCC, online portal for KCC procedure, maximum interest on fisheries KCC and other similar issues and their queries were answered and clarified then and there. After discussion, the webinar concluded with the vote of thanks proposed by Dr. SK Dwivedi, Assistant Commissioner, DoF.
