Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana - RAFTAAR

Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) is a central sector scheme which aims to provide support to various kinds of interventions in agricultural sector to achieve annual growth rate of 4% in agriculture (initiated in 2007). The scheme allows states to choose their own agriculture and allied sector development activities as per the district/state agriculture plan.

• The government has recently revamped the scheme as RKVY – RAFTAAR (Remunerative Approaches for Agriculture and Allied sector Rejuvenation).

The major sub-schemes of RKVY-RAFTAAR are:

• Bringing Green Revolution to Eastern India (BGREI)
• Crop Diversification Program (CDP)
• Reclamation of Problem Soil (RPS)
• Foot & Mouth Disease – Control Program (FMD-CP)
• Saffron Mission
• Accelerated Fodder Development Programme (AFDP)

The scheme focused on greater financial allocation on pre-harvest and post-harvest infrastructure and strengthening farmer’s efforts in risk mitigation and promoting agri-business entrepreneurship by creation of agri-infrastructure.

Limitations of the Scheme

• Financial constraints as only 1% of RKVYs budget allocation is permitted to be used for managing administrative expenses.
• DAC (Department of Agriculture and Cooperation) does not have the trained manpower to undertake evaluation of implementation of RKVY.
• Lack of agro climatic study and its integration in decentralized local planning has affected implementation at the grass root level.
• The scheme has also inability to incentive states to allocate greater financial resources in agriculture and its allied sectors.