The scheme proposes to facilitate and incentivise the movement of agri-produce by air transportation
Union Minister of Civil Aviation, Jyotiraditya M Scindia, Usha Padhee, Joint Secretary, MoCA, Rajbir Singh, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, KekuGazder, CEO, AAICLAS, and Dilip Chenoy, Secretary-General, FICCI released Krishi UDAN 2.0. Krishi UDAN 2.0 lays out the vision of improving value realisation through better integration and optimisation of agri-harvesting and air transportation and contributing to agri-value chain sustainability and resilience under different and dynamic conditions. The scheme proposes to facilitate and incentivise the movement of agri-produce by air transportation.
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 & Facilitation Agency, under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. It offers a full waiver of Landing, Parking, TNLC and RNFC charges for Indian freighters and P2C at selected Airports of the Airport Authority of India primarily, focusing on NER, hilly and tribal regions.
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 farmers, freight forwarders and Airlines. The Ministry of Civil Aviation plans to be pilot the scheme for six months, and, will introduce amendments based on the results of the evaluation and consultations with other stakeholders.
Scindia said, “The 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.”
He added, “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 three 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.”
