Krishi Udan Scheme [Govt Schemes for UPSC]

The government of India has launched Krishi Udan Scheme in August 2020. Recently, the scheme has been upgraded to Krishi Udan 2.0. The article will discuss the scheme in detail for the IAS exam. 

Krishi Udan Scheme 

To facilitate the marketing of agricultural and farm products of the northeastern states outside the region, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has launched the ‘Krishi-Udan Scheme’.

• The scheme has been implemented in the region very successfully.
• The government released Krishi UDAN 2.0 in October 2021. 
• The government will add 21 more airports under the Krishi Udan scheme, as per the latest reports of Feb 2023.

The vision of the scheme:

Krishi Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik (UDAN) 2.0 lays out the vision of improving value realization through better integration and optimization of Agri-harvesting and air transportation and contributing to the Agri-value chain sustainability and resilience under different and dynamic conditions.

Krishi Udan Scheme Objectives

The objective of the Krishi Udan scheme was to provide assistance to the farmers with respect to the transport of agricultural products so that they will be able to get the value realization for their products.

• The Krishi UDAN 2.0 focuses on the transportation of perishable food products from north-eastern states, hilly states, and tribal regions.
• The scheme will focus on addressing the long-standing problem of the wastage of agricultural products.
• The other objective is to penetrate deeper into the hinterland and to be able to provide value, especially for perishable commodities.

Also read: Udan Scheme

Implementation of the scheme and the routes associated with the scheme:

• • Krishi UDAN 2.0 will be implemented at 53 airports across the country, primarily focussing on the north-eastern States and tribal regions, and is expected to benefit farmers, freight forwarders, and airlines.
  • The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has identified seven domestic and international trade routes under the scheme. 
• The trade routes and products include: 
  • The Amritsar-Dubai route, to enable transportation of baby corn; 
  • Darbhanga to the rest of India to transport lychees; 
  • Chennai, Visakhapatnam, Kolkata to the East Asian countries to transport seafood; and 
  • From Sikkim to the rest of India for organic produce. 
• The other trade routes the Ministry is setting up are: 
  • Agartala-Delhi-Dubai for transportation of pineapples; 
  • Dibrugarh-Delhi-Dubai for Mandarin oranges; and 
  • Guwahati to Hong Kong for pulses, fruits, and vegetables. 

Krishi Udan Scheme Provisions

In this section, you can read about the key provisions of the Krishi Udan Scheme.

• Facilitating and incentivizing movement of Agri-produce by air transportation: 
  • Under the scheme, the ministry for civil aviation will give a complete waiver of landing, parking, landing charges, and route navigation facilities charges to domestic carriers.
• Strengthening cargo-related infrastructure at airports and off airports: 
  • To facilitate the development of a hub and spoke model and a freight grid. 
  • Airside transit and trans-shipment infrastructure will be created at Bagdogra and Guwahati airports, and at Leh, Srinagar, Nagpur, Nashik, Ranchi, and Raipur airports as a part of a focus on NER, Tribal and Hilly Districts.

• Resources-Pooling: 
  • Collaboration with other government departments and regulatory bodies to provide freight forwarders, airlines, and other stakeholders with Incentives and concessions to enhance air transportation of Agri-produce. 

• Technological convergence: 
  • Development of E-KUSHAL (Krishi UDAN for Sustainable Holistic Agri-Logistics). Platform to be developed facilitate information dissemination to all the stakeholders. 
  • Furthermore, integration of E-KUSHAL with the National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) is proposed.
• E-KUSHAL (Krishi Udaan for Sustainable Holistic Agri-Logistics): 
  • It is a proposed platform that will facilitate information dissemination to all stakeholders. 
  • This will be a single platform that will provide relevant information at the same time will also assist in coordination, monitoring, and evaluation of the scheme. Proposed convergence of E-Kushal with National Agriculture Market (e-NAM).
• Hub and Spoke Model: 
  • The scheme will facilitate the development of a hub and spoke model and a freight grid (identified locations for cargo terminals).
  • The Hub and spoke model is essentially a distribution model that resembles the spherical shape of a bicycle wheel. In the middle of a wire-spoked wheel is what is known as the hub. It is this hub that allows each of the spokes, sprawled out in all directions around the wheel, to meet at a centralized location at the centre of the wheel.
  • We see this concept used in multiple industries, such as grocery – where food and consumer products are often loaded into a single truck at a distribution hub, then sent to individual satellite stores.
  • It’s also common at larger airports, where an airline will use it as a distribution centre to fly people across the globe. 

Krishi Udan Scheme Benefits

The scheme will provide the following benefits:

Paradigm shift:

• To double the income of the farmers, there is a need for a paradigm shift in agriculture. This scheme is a step towards this shift.

Doubling the income of the farmers:

• This scheme will help in doubling the income of the farmers by providing them with value realizations for their products.

Growth of Agriculture Sector:

• The scheme will open up new avenues of growth for the agriculture sector and help attain the goal of doubling farmers’ income by removing barriers in the supply chain, logistics, and transportation of farm produce.

Reduce food wastage:

• This will resolve the problem of agricultural food products wastage.

Conclusion:

This scheme is launched with the vision of doubling the farmers’ income in near future. The government is putting a lot of effort to develop the agriculture sector.

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