
NEW DELHI: Turning its focus on post-harvest infrastructure, the Centre has planned to completely revamp the existing 10-year-old Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana to take farming in India to a new level.
The revamped plan, which has already been vetted by the department of expenditure of the finance ministry and the government’s thinktank Niti Aayog, will be known as RKVY-Raftaar (Remunerative Approaches for the Agriculture and Allied Sector Development).
For the next two years, emphasis will be given to development of agriculture infrastructure, specifically post-harvest infrastructure and promotion of private investment in agriculture across the country in a big way.
“Idea is to fast-track agriculture development and take this to a new level of annual growth trajectory, beyond 4%. The agriculture ministry will soon take the revised version of the RKVY to the Cabinet for its approval,” said a senior ministry official. RKVY was launched during 2007-08 to achieve 4% annual growth in agri sector by ensuring a holistic development as per a resolution of the National Development Council (NDC). The Centre had allocated Rs 25,000 crore for this scheme during 11th plan period (2007-12) and Rs 63,246 crore during 12th plan period (2012-17).
It is being implemented as a ‘special additional central assistance’ scheme to incentivise states to draw up comprehensive plans taking into account agro-climatic conditions and natural resources for ensuring more inclusive and integrated development of agriculture and allied sectors.
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