• Centre govt is planning to include 21 more airports under krishi udan scheme.

About Krishi UDAN scheme

• Krishi UDAN Scheme was launched in August 2020, on international and national routes to assist farmers in transporting agricultural 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.
• Krishi Udan Scheme is a convergence scheme where eight Ministries/Departments namely 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.
• After the Krishi UDAN success, Krishi Udan 2.0 was launched in 2021 to further boost the vision of the program.
• Under Krishi UDAN 2.0, perishable food items from tribal communities, Northeastern states, and hilly regions would be transported.

Main objectives of Krishi Udan 2.0

• Facilitating and incentivizing movement of agri-produce by air transportation
• Strengthening cargo related infrastructure at airports and off airports
• Concessions sought from other bodies
• Resources-Pooling through establishing Convergence mechanism
• Technological convergence: Development of E-KUSHAL (Krishi UDAN for Sustainable Holistic Agri-Logistics). Platform to be developed facilitate in information dissemination to all the stakeholders.