New Delhi, Aug. 3 -- Total outstanding agricultural loans of banks neared Rs.31.35 lakh crore as on December 31, 2025, including about Rs.24.62 lakh crore extended by scheduled commercial banks (SCBs), Rs.3.42 lakh crore by regional rural banks (RRBs) and Rs.3.31 lakh crore by rural cooperative banks, officials said citing provisional data. Out of the total outstanding agricultural loans of SCBs, public sector banks (PSBs) account for over 70%, they said, requesting anonymity. To be sure, outstanding agricultural loans means the total amount of money (including principal and interest) the sector currently owes to banks and financial institutions. In terms of outstanding agricultural loans from all the three sources (SCBs, RRBs and rural cooperative banks), Tamil Nadu topped the list with about Rs.5.06 lakh crore, followed by Andhra Pradesh (Rs.3.75 lakh crore), Maharashtra (Rs.3.07 lakh crore), Uttar Pradesh (Rs.2.30 lakh crore), Karnataka (Rs.2.10 lakh crore), and Rajasthan (Rs.1.92 lakh crore). According to data, while SCBs played crucial role in extending agricultural credit, RRBs also played significant role in Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu. Rural cooperative banks played significant role in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh. The government is extending credits at concessional rates to farmers. India has witnessed a significant growth in the ground level credit (GLC) flow to agriculture sector, they said. The government fixes the GLC targets for agriculture and allied sector that are met by banks in a particular financial year, officials said. Over the past decade, it reached nearly Rs.28.67 lakh crore in 2024-25 from Rs.8.45 lakh crore in 2014-15, they said. During this period, the share of credit disbursed to small and marginal farmers has also increased from Rs.3.46 lakh crore to Rs.14.77 lakh crore, they added. The short-term agri-loan scheme - the modified interest subvention scheme (MISS) - is also popular. The government has so far disbursed Rs.1.77 lakh crore under the scheme between 2014-15 and 2025-26 (as on January 31, 2026), the officials said. To ensure transparency, efficiency in administering MISS and timely disbursement of interest subvention, a digital platform namely Kisan Rin Portal has been launched by the government for prompt settlement of claims, they added. The Kisan Credit Card Scheme (KCC) is another popular instrument, which enables farmers in meeting their short-term capital requirements. As on March 31, 2025, there were 77.2 million operational KCC accounts with a loan outstanding of Rs.10.20 lakh crore, the officials cited above said. In 2018-19, the KCC facility was also extended to farmers engaged in allied activities, including animal husbandry, dairying and fisheries. Citing the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development's (NABARD) all India rural financial inclusion survey (NAFIS 2021-22) report, the officials said that 55% of agricultural households have already availed institutional credit facility....