By Devanshee Dave
The Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY), on 1st November, got rebranded as the RKVY Remunerative Approaches for Agriculture and Allied sector Rejuvenation (RAFTAAR), which will be in implementation for three years, ending in 2019-20. The approval was granted by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, which is chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The motto of this scheme is to empower farming as a lucrative economic activity by reinforcing farmers efforts, improving risk handling and value chain, post-harvest infrastructure, and entrepreneurship in farming business.
Roots of the scheme
The roots of the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana are quite deep. The scheme was implemented under the XI five-year plan. The scheme gives state governments the flexibility and power to implement programmes for encouraging investment in agriculture and related sectors through District Agricultural Plans (DAPs) and State Agriculture Plan (SAPs). These two programmes mainly look into fulfilling the local needs, cropping pattern, and availability of technology to develop agriculture and allied sectors.
RKVY has also contributed to the creation of national priority projects like Revolution to Eastern India (BGREI), Reclamation of Problem Soil (RPS), Saffron mission, and more. RKVY has been a driving force for the development of agriculture. In an evaluation done by the Institute of Economic Growth, it has been seen that the income generated in the post-RKVY period is higher than the period before it. Also, during XI and XII five-years plans, state governments have taken over 13,000 projects in agriculture and allied sectors, which turned out to be positive.
What are the changes?
Now, after the changes in the RKVY policy, the improved RKVY-RAFTAAR would be in implementation. It will divide the funds in the ratio of 60:40 between the state and central governments, in which the north-east and the Himalayan states are exceptions, as they will receive funds in a 90:10 ratio.
In addition to this, the government has also allocated the use of annual income outcome. As stated by the government, 70% of the annual outcome will be allocated in three categories, under which 50% will be used for creating infrastructure and assets, 30% in value-addition linked production projects and the remaining 20% will be provisioned as flexible funds, under which the state government are free to use these funds as per their local requirements.
20% of the annual income will also be used for sub-schemes of the national project and the remaining 10% will be allotted to setting up agri-enterprises, end-to-end solutions, skill development, among others.
With this allocation, agriculture and related sectors will be nourished. It will strengthen farmers and prepare agriculture infrastructure, which is much required in a developing country like India. The scheme will improve the supply and quality of inputs, along with the market environment. As agricultural entrepreneurship increases, the farmers will also get high returns on their inputs. In a country, where we frequently read news about farmers attempting suicide, such schemes are very beneficial. Overall, we can say that the changes made in the agriculture scheme would be an advantage for the agriculture sector in the long run.
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