New Delhi: Union Minister of Civil Aviation, Shri Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, Smt. Usha Padhee, Joint Secretary, MoCA, Shri Rajbir Singh, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Shri KekuGazder, CEO, AAICLAS, and Shri DilipChenoy, Secretary General, FICCI released Krishi UDAN 2.0. Krishi UDAN 2.0 lays out the vision of improving value realization 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 scheme proposes to facilitating and incentivizing movement of Agri-produce by air transportation.
Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, Union Minister of Civil Aviation said, “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.”
Talking about the endeavor to accomplish convergence between the 2 important but diverse areas in India’s economic roadmap i.e. Agriculture and Aviation, the Union 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% 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 full waiver of Landing, Parking, TNLC and RNFC charges for Indian freighters and P2C at selected Airports of Airport Authority of India primarily, focusing on NER, 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 of Civil Aviation plans to be pilot the scheme for 6 months, and, will introduce amendments based on results of the evaluation & consultations with other stakeholders.
