Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana

Why is in news? Encouragement to Agri-Startups in Rural Areas

The Government of India, Department of Agriculture & Farmers' Welfare (DA&FW) is implementing “Innovation and Agri-Entrepreneurship Development” programme under Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) from 2018-19.

This Department has appointed five Knowledge Partners (KPs) and twenty-four RKVY Agribusiness Incubators (R-ABIs) from across the country for incubation of startups and implementation of this programme.

Start-ups are trained and incubated at various Knowledge Partners (KPs) and RKVY Agribusiness Incubators (R-ABIs) appointed under the programme across the country.

Technical and financial assistance is provided to startups to launch their products, services, business platforms, etc into the market and facilitate them to scale up their products and operations to attain business viability.

Besides, KPs and R-ABIs are promoting these startups by linking them with various institutions and organizations for their product & technology validation, certification, etc.

The Government of India organizes various national level programmes including agri-startup conclave, agri fair and exhibitions, webinars, workshops to serve as a platform for the promotion of agri startups by linking them with various stakeholders.

Besides, Government of India has approved a proposal to set up an “Accelerator Fund” of Rs. 500 crore for five years commencing from 2023-24 to encourage the young entrepreneurs to setup agri-startups.

Accelerator fund will help to scale up the successful startups with innovative technologies having the potential of modernizing the agriculture ecosystem of the country.

This initiative will also help to the farmers by having value addition to the agricultural produces, better supply chain and market linkages etc and to boost agricultural economy in the rural areas of the country.

Under the Accelerator Fund programme, certain activities are planned like development of institutional mechanism and operational guidelines, identification of problem statements in agriculture & allied sectors, selection of agri-startups having high impact & innovative solutions, technical and financial support to encourage selected agri-startups and capacity building, etc during 2023-24.

Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana:

RKVY scheme was initiated in 2007 as an umbrella scheme for ensuring holistic development of agriculture and allied sectors.

The scheme incentivizes States to increase public investment in Agriculture & allied sectors.

The National Development Council (NDC) resolved that agricultural development strategies must be reoriented to meet the needs of farmers and called upon the Central and State governments to evolve a strategy to rejuvenate agriculture.

The NDC reaffirmed its commitment to achieve 4 per cent annual growth in the agricultural sector during the 11th plan.

The Department of Agriculture, in compliance of the above resolution and in consultation with the Planning Commission, has prepared the guidelines for the RKVY scheme, to be known as National Agriculture Development Programme (RKVY).

Objectives:

To incentivize the states that increase their investment in Agriculture and allied sectors

To provide flexibility and autonomy to the States in planning and executing programmes for agriculture

To ensure the preparation of Agriculture Plans for the districts and states

To achieve the goal of reducing the yield gaps in important crops

To maximize returns to the farmers

To address the agriculture and allied sectors in an integrated manner

Basic features of RKVY:

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 NREGS.

The pattern of funding is 100% Central Government Grant.

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 time-lines are highly encouraged