• 58 airports will be covered under Krishi Udan Scheme 2.0

About:

• Krishi Udan Scheme 2.0was announced on 27 October 2021.

What is the objective?

• The main objective of the Krishi Udan Scheme 2.0 is to increase share of air carriage in the modal mix for transportation of Agri-produce, which includes horticulture, fishery, livestock and processed products.
• The scheme assists farmers in transporting agriculture products so that it improves their value realisation.
• The Scheme aims to ensure seamless, cost-effective, time bound, air transportation and associated logistics for all Agri-produce originating especially from North-East, hilly and tribal regions of the country.
  • Few successful examplesare air transportation of ‘King Chillies, Burmese Grapes & Assamese Lemon’ from Guwahati, ‘Jackfruit’ from Tripura and ‘Litchi’ from Darbhanga.

Waiver:

• For facilitating and incentivising movement of agri-produce by air transportation, Airports Authority of India (AAI) provides full waiver of Landing, Parking, Terminal Navigational Landing Charges (TNLC) and Route Navigation Facility Charges (RNFC) for Indian freighters and P2C (Passenger-to-Cargo) Aircraft.
• The Ministry of Civil Aviation has also asked States to reduce sales tax on aviation turbine fuel to one perc ent for airlines under the Krishi UDAN 2.0 scheme.

Budget:

• There is no specific budget allocation under Krishi Udan Scheme.

Ministries/Departments:

• It is a convergence scheme where eight Ministries/Departmentsnamely Ministry of Civil Aviation, Department of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Department of Commerce, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Ministry of Development of North-Eastern Region would leverage their existing schemes to strengthen the logistics for transportation of Agri-produce.

E-Kushal:

• The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) is also developing an online platform named E-Kushal (Krishi Udaan for Sustainable Holistic Agri-Logistics).
• It will facilitate information dissemination to all stakeholders regarding the transportation of agricultural produce.
• E-Kushal will also assist in coordinating, monitoring and evaluating the Krishi UDAN 2.0 scheme.
• The MoCA has also proposed a convergence of E-Kushal with the National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) platform.

Krishi UDAN scheme:

• The Krishi UDAN scheme was launched in August 2020.
• It aims to assist farmers in transporting agricultural products on international and national routes so that it improves their value realisation.