Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana

Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY), a comprehensive centrally sponsored scheme, launched in April, 2015 is a sub-component of Soil Health Management (SHM) scheme under National Mission of Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA).

• The scheme is aligned with the goals of National Programme for Organic Production. The scheme aims to bring about successful “Organic Farming Revolution” in India and also achieve the target of covering 50,000 hectares under organic farming in the North Eastern states.
• Fifty or more farmers will form a cluster having 50 acre land to take up organic farming. Every farmer will be provided Rs. 20,000 per acre in three years for seed to harvesting of crops and to transport produce to the market

Objectives

• To reduce cost of agriculture to farmers through sustainable integrated organic farming systems thereby enhancing farmer's net income per unit of land.
• To sustainably produce chemical free and nutritious food for human consumption.
• To protect environment from hazardous inorganic chemicals by adoption of eco-friendly low cost traditional techniques and farmer friendly technologies.
• To empower farmers through their own institutional development in the form of clusters and group with capacity to manage production, processing, value addition and certification management.
• To make farmers entrepreneurs through direct market linkages with local and national markets.

Performance

A total fund of Rs1197.64 cr has been released to states and UTs for the last four years (2017-20) under the programme. Financial assistance of Rs 3000 /hectare for 3 years is provided for Cluster formation (of 20 ha) and Capacity building including exposure visits, and trainings of field functionaries.

Challenges

• Soil system takes time to respond to organic production system.
• Over reliance on purchase of organic inputs from outside the farm has been found to increase the cost of production (by 15-20%).
• Lack of organic certification through independent third parties.
• Lack of culture of hand holding of entrepreneurs and access to timely formal credit.

Possibilities and Prospects

• Initiate the Organic Value Chain Development for North Eastern Region and in hilly and tribal areas.
• Provide financial assistance to Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs)
• Promoting on-farm generation of inputs to reduce the cost of production per unit area (by 13%) in organic farming.
• Promotion of Integrated Organic Farming System (IOFS) models to meet 70-80% of organic inputs.