Govt Launches Krishi Udan 2.0 Scheme To Facilitate, Incentivise Air Transport Of Agricultural Products

Union Minister of Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia on Wednesday (27 October) launched Krishi UDAN 2.0 scheme to focus on transporting perishable food products from the hilly areas, northeastern states and tribal areas.

The government's Krishi UDAN scheme proposes to facilitate and incentivise movement of Agri-produce by air transportation.

Krishi UDAN 2.0 lays out the vision of improving value realisation through better integration and optimization of agri-harvesting and air transportation and contributing to agri-value chain sustainability and resilience under different and dynamic conditions, the Civil Aviation Ministry said in a statement.

Scindia while launching the scheme said, "Krishi UDAN 2.0 will help solve the problem of wastage of agricultural food wastes in the country", reports MoneyControl.

"Krishi UDAN 2.0 is an example of this government’s collaborative approach towards policy making. This scheme will open up new avenues of growth for the agriculture sector andhelp attain the goal of doubling farmers' income by removing barriers in supply chain, logistics and transportation of farm produce," Scindia said.

Talking about the endeavor to accomplish convergence between the two important but diverse areas in India's economic roadmap i.e. Agriculture and Aviation, the Civil Aviation Minister said, "We want to take the Anndata to the highest level, by adopting the model of A2A – Agriculture to Aviation. The convergence between the two sectors is possible because of 3 primary reasons – Evolutionary possible use of biofuel for aircraft in future, use of drones in agriculture sector, and due to greater integration and value realisation of agricultural products through schemes like Krishi UDAN".

The enhanced version of the Krishi UDAN scheme was formulated with support from AAICLAS - a 100 per cent subsidiary of the Airports Authority of India and Invest India, India’s national Investment Promotion and Facilitation Agency, under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

The scheme offers full waiver of landing, parking, Terminal Navigational Landing Charges (TNLC) and Route Navigation Facility Charges (RNFC) charges for Indian freighters and Passenger to Cargo (P2C) at selected Airports of Airport Authority of India primarily, focusing on Northeastern Regions, Hilly and Tribal region.

The Krishi UDAN 2.0 will be implemented at 53 airports across the country mainly focusing on Northeast and tribal regions and is likely to benefit farmer, freight forwarders and airlines, the ministry said.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation plans to be pilot the scheme for 6 months, and, will introduce amendments based on results of the evaluation and consultations with other stakeholders.