Krishi UDAN 2.0

In News 

  • Recently, the Union Minister of Civil Aviation released Krishi UDAN 2.0. to facilitate and incentivize the movement of Agri-produce by air transportation.

 About Krishi UDAN 2.0

  • It was formulated with support from AAICLAS – a 100% subsidiary of the Airports Authority of India and Invest India, India’s national Investment Promotion & Facilitation Agency, under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. 
  • It lays out the vision of improving value realization through better integration and optimization of Agri-harvesting and air transportation.
  • It aims to contribute to Agri-value chain sustainability and resilience under different and dynamic conditions. 
  • This scheme will open up new avenues of growth for the agriculture sector and help attain the goal of doubling farmers’ income by removing barriers in the supply chain, logistics and transportation of farm produce.
  • Development of E-KUSHAL (Krishi Udaan for Sustainable Holistic Agri-Logistics): Proposed to develop a platform that will facilitate information dissemination to all the stakeholders. This will be a single platform that will provide relevant information at the same time and will also assist in coordination, monitoring and evaluation of the scheme. 

UDAN scheme 

  • It was launched as a regional connectivity scheme under the Ministry of Civil Aviation in 2016.
  • The first flight under the UDAN scheme was flagged in 2017 from Bhubaneswar to the Varanasi route.
  • It offers a unique opportunity to a common man to fly at an affordable price.
  • It has played a major role in adding new airports and routes to the aviation landscape of the country.
  • The 4th round of UDAN was launched in December 2019 with a special focus on North-Eastern Regions, Hilly States, and Islands.
  • The UDAN 4.1 is focused on connecting smaller airports, along with a special helicopter and seaplane routes.

Krishi UDAN scheme 

  • The Minister of Civil Aviation launched the Krishi Udan scheme to assist farmers in transporting agricultural products so that it improves their “value realisation”.
  • It was launched on international and national routes. 
  • This will immensely help improve value realisation (on agricultural products), especially in the north-east and tribal districts
  • Under the scheme, financial incentives in terms of concessions from the Centre, state governments and airport operators are extended to selected airlines to encourage operations from unserved and underserved airports and keep airfares affordable.
  • Convergence between  Agriculture to Aviation(A2A )
    • 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 the agriculture sector, and greater integration and value realisation of agricultural products through schemes like Krishi UDAN.

Source:PIB