Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana was launched as a Central Sector Scheme in 2007 to provide support to various kinds of interventions in agricultural sector to achieve 4% annual growth in agriculture. In this umbrella scheme, the states are allowed to choose their own agriculture and allied sector development activities as per the district/state agriculture plan. On the basis of experience and feedback from states, the government has revamped the scheme as RKVY – RAFTAAR – Remunerative Approaches for Agriculture and Allied sector Rejuvenation.

RKVY has also enabled adoption of national priorities without affecting the autonomy and flexibility of States through sub-schemes.  National priorities like Bringing Green Revolution to Eastern India (BGREI), Crop Diversification Program (CDP), Reclamation of Problem Soil (RPS), Foot & Mouth Disease – Control Program (FMD-CP), Saffron Mission, Accelerated Fodder Development Programme, etc. are being implemented through the window of RKVY.

Objectives 

The key aim of this scheme is to make farming a remunerative economic activity, through:

• Strengthening the farmers’ efforts, risk mitigation and promoting agri-business entrepreneurship via creation of agri-infrastructure.
• Provide flexibility and autonomy to states to make plans and execute as per their local needs.
• To promote value chain addition linked production models that will help farmers increase their income as well as encourage production/ productivity.
• To mitigate risk of farmers with focus on additional income generation activities – like integrated farming, mushroom cultivation, bee keeping, aromatic plant cultivation, floriculture etc.
• To attend national priorities through several sub-schemes.To empower youth through skill development, innovation and agri-entrepreneurship based agribusiness models that attract them to agriculture.

Financial Allocation

The financial centre and states share expenditure in this scheme on 60:40 ratio. This ratio is 90:10 between North Eastern States and Himalayan States.

Sectors covered under RKVY-RAFTAAR

RKVY – Raftaar covers almost all agriculture and allied sectors such as Crop Cultivation, Horticulture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries, Dairy Development, Agricultural Research and Education, Forestry and Wildlife, Plantation and Agricultural Marketing, Food Storage and Warehousing, Soil and Water Conservation, Agricultural Financial Institutions, other Agricultural Programmes and Cooperation.

What makes RKVY-RAFTAAR unique ?!

It is a State Plan scheme. The eligibility of a state for the RKVY is contingent upon the state maintaining or increasing the State Plan expenditure for Agricultural and Allied sectors. The base line expenditure is determined based on the average expenditure incurred by the State Government during the three years prior to the previous year.

The preparation of the district and State Agriculture Plans is mandatory. The scheme encourages convergence with other programmes such as MGNREGA. If the state lowers its investment in the subsequent years, and goes out of the RKVY basket, then the balance resources for completing the projects already commenced would have to be committed by the states.

It is an incentive scheme, hence allocations are not automatic. It will integrate agriculture and allied sectors comprehensively. It will give high levels of flexibility to the states. Projects with definite timelines are highly encouraged.

Advantage of the Scheme

The scheme will incentivise states in enhancing more allocation to agriculture and allied sectors. It will help in the creation of post harvest infrastructure. It will also strengthen farmers’ efforts through creation of agriculture infrastructure that will help in supply of quality inputs, market facilities among other related requirements for the growth of agriculture and allied activities.

It will help in promotion of private investment in the farm sector across the nation. It will further promote agri-entrepreneurship and support business models which will in turn maximize returns to farmers. It lays emphasis on involving the youth in agriculture and allied activities in order to increase rural employment by providing various incentives. It is also aligned with the target of doubling farmer’s income by 2022.

Sub-schemes like Accelerated Fodder Development Programme (AFDP), Saffron Mission, Crop Diversification Programme (CDP) etc will be implemented under RKVY-RAFTAAR.

During XI Plan and XII Plan, States have taken over 13,000 projects in agriculture and allied sector through State Agriculture Department as Nodal Implementing Agency.

The interim report of RKVY evaluation done by Institute of Economic Growth summarizes that the income emanating from agriculture measured as the Agricultural State Domestic Product (AGSDP) is higher in the post-RKVY period than in the pre-RKVY period. Further, almost all the states registered higher value of output from agriculture and allied activities in the post-RKVY period. Continuation of RKVY-RAFTAAR will therefore keep the momentum of agriculture and allied sector growth.

Compiled by Dharini, Horticultural graduate. [email protected]