India, June 3 -- Chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday announced an increase in the cooperative credit limit for various crops, calling it a sweeping overhaul of the Kisan Credit Card (KCC) system.

He said it transforms a 26-year-old framework that had long left KCC holders in the state dependent on inadequate institutional credit and vulnerable to private moneylenders.

Mann said the new KCC framework would put more money directly into farmers' hands, accelerate crop diversification beyond the wheat-paddy cycle, strengthen cooperative credit institutions, and help free cultivators from debt traps.

The reforms are expected to benefit over 13 lakh farmers across Punjab, with credit support for several crops rising sharply, including ho...