The Reserve Bank of India has issued draft revised guidelines for the Kisan Credit Card (KCC) Scheme following its Statement on Developmental and Regulatory Policies dated February 6, 2026. The revised directions aim to consolidate existing guidelines for agriculture and allied activities, expand coverage, streamline operational aspects, and address emerging requirements. The draft applies to Commercial Banks, Small Finance Banks, Regional Rural Banks, and Rural Co-operative Banks. Key changes include standardizing crop seasons into short-duration (12 months) and long-duration (18 months) categories to ensure uniform loan sanction and repayment schedules. The tenure of KCC has been extended to six years to better align with longer crop cycles. Drawing limits will now be linked to the scale of finance for each crop season to reflect actual cultivation costs. Additionally, eligible expenses now include technological interventions such as soil testing and weather forecasting within a 20% additional component. Public comments are invited until March 6, 2026.
RESERVE BANK OF INDIA
Date : Feb 12, 2026
Revised Kisan Credit Card (KCC) Scheme
Reserve Bank had announced, as part of the Statement on Developmental and Regulatory Policies dated February 06, 2026 that revised guidelines on KCC are proposed to be issued consolidating those on agriculture and allied activities, with a view to expand coverage, streamline operational aspects and address emerging requirements. Accordingly, the following draft Directions are being issued for public comments.
i. Commercial Banks – Kisan Credit Card (KCC) Scheme
ii. Small Finance Banks – Kisan Credit Card (KCC) Scheme
iii. Regional Rural Banks – Kisan Credit Card (KCC) Scheme
iv. Rural Co-operative Banks – Kisan Credit Card (KCC) Scheme
2. The following major changes in the KCC Scheme are reflected in the draft guidelines:
i. To bring in uniformity in loan sanction and repayment schedules, crop seasons have been standardized in terms of months i.e. short duration crops (12 months) and long duration crops (18 months)
ii. To ensure proper dovetailing of loan tenure with crop seasons especially for the longer duration crops, the tenure of KCC has been extended to 6 years.
iii. To ensure that farmers receive adequate credit based on actual cost of cultivation, drawing limits under KCC has been aligned with the scale of finance for each crop season.
iv. To enable farmers to access finance for technological interventions such as soil testing, real time weather forecasts and organic/good agricultural practices certification etc such expenses has been added as eligible components within 20% additional component towards repairs and maintenance of farm assets.
3. The comments / feedback on the draft Master Directions may be submitted by the regulated entities and members of public / other stakeholders on or before March 6, 2026 through the following channels:
i. the ‘Connect 2 Regulate’ section on the website by following the corresponding hyperlink provided against each document in the page where they are hosted; or
ii. by email with the subject line ‘Feedback on (full name of the draft Amendment Directions (including the type of Regulated Entity))’.
(Brij Raj)
Chief General Manager
Press Release: 2025-2026/2095
