What is RKVY and when was it launched?

Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) is a flagship scheme of the Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (DA&FW), Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India, launched on the recommendation of the National Development Council in 2007–08. It was created to incentivise state governments to draw up and implement state and district agriculture plans, give states flexibility to design context-specific projects, and accelerate growth in agriculture and the allied sectors (horticulture, animal husbandry, dairy, fisheries). Initially structured as Additional Central Assistance (ACA) to states, RKVY was converted into a Centrally Sponsored Scheme in 2014–15 and rebranded as RKVY-RAFTAAR (Remunerative Approaches for Agriculture and Allied Sector Rejuvenation) for the 2017–18 to 2019–20 period.

What changed for RKVY on 1 October 2024?

On 1 October 2024 the Union Cabinet approved a major restructuring of DA&FW's centrally-sponsored portfolio into two umbrella schemes. The Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (PM-RKVY) now consolidates RKVY along with sustainable-agriculture instruments such as the Soil Health Mission, Rainfed Area Development, Per Drop More Crop (PMKSY-PDMC component administered by DA&FW), Sub-Mission on Agroforestry, Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana, and Crop Residue Management. In parallel, Krishonnati Yojana consolidates production / food-security instruments such as the National Food Security Mission, NMEO-Oilseeds, NMEO-OP, Sub-Mission on Seeds and Planting Material, the Integrated Scheme on Agricultural Mechanization and the Sub-Mission on Agricultural Extension. Each component retains its operational identity but is funded and reviewed under one of the two umbrellas — letting states cross-flex up to a notified ceiling between sub-components.

What is the centre-state cost-share under RKVY / PM-RKVY?

RKVY and PM-RKVY follow the standard centrally-sponsored scheme cost-share pattern notified by the Department of Expenditure: 60:40 between the Government of India and general states, 90:10 for the eight North-Eastern states and the Himalayan states / UTs (Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh), and 100% central funding for Union Territories without a legislature. State annual allocations are decided on the basis of the State Agriculture Plan, average expenditure on agriculture and allied sectors, gross cropped area and weightages for productivity and sustainability indicators as per the latest DA&FW operational guidelines.

Which sectors and activities are eligible under RKVY / PM-RKVY?

RKVY is deliberately broad: crop production (cereals, pulses, oilseeds, coarse cereals / nutri-cereals, commercial crops), horticulture (including MIDH-aligned activities where they fall to the state), animal husbandry and dairying, fisheries and aquaculture, agricultural mechanisation, soil and water conservation, market infrastructure at the FPO / mandi level, post-harvest management and value addition, agroforestry, and a dedicated stream for innovation and agri-entrepreneurship. Under the October 2024 restructuring, sustainable-agriculture-leaning sub-components sit under PM-RKVY while production / food-security-leaning sub-components sit under Krishonnati Yojana. States have flexibility within their SAP to reallocate up to a notified percentage across eligible sub-components in a given financial year.

Who is the implementing authority and how do farmers benefit?

RKVY is a state-led scheme — sanctioning happens at the State Level Sanctioning Committee (SLSC) chaired by the Chief Secretary, and implementation is by state agriculture / horticulture / animal husbandry / fisheries departments, state agricultural universities, KVKs, R-ABIs and accredited Knowledge Partners. Farmers do not apply to RKVY directly; instead the benefits reach them as: subsidised farm machinery and micro-irrigation equipment (where the state has chosen those activities), Soil Health Card sampling, demonstration plots and Cluster Front Line Demonstrations by KVKs, training and Farmer Field Schools, R-ABI incubation if the farmer or FPO is launching an agri-business, and infrastructure such as custom-hiring centres, post-harvest sheds and primary processing units run by FPOs or state agencies on RKVY funding.

How does RKVY converge with PM-KISAN, PMFBY, KCC and other schemes?

RKVY funds infrastructure, technology adoption, value chains and state-flexible projects — it does not replace direct-benefit schemes. PM-KISAN provides ₹6,000/year income support, KCC provides working-capital credit and PMFBY provides crop insurance against yield-loss risk, all independent of RKVY enrolment. Sub-components under PM-RKVY (Soil Health, Rainfed Area Development, Per Drop More Crop, PKVY, Crop Residue Management) integrate naturally with KCC-financed input planning and PMFBY-insured cropping cycles. Under Krishonnati Yojana, the National Food Security Mission, NMEO-Oilseeds and NMEO-OP target production gains in identified crops and districts. e-NAM provides the online market layer that RKVY-funded mandi infrastructure plugs into.

Where do I find the current RKVY guidelines and state allocations?

Start with the Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare at agriwelfare.gov.in for the RKVY / PM-RKVY operational guidelines, current-year state allocations and the State Level Sanctioning Committee minutes archive. The dedicated RKVY portal at rkvy.da.gov.in publishes project-level dashboards by state and component. The Press Information Bureau (pib.gov.in) carries the 1 October 2024 Cabinet press release that approved the PM-RKVY / Krishonnati Yojana restructuring. State-level information is available on each state agriculture department's website and through the State Nodal Agency for RKVY (typically the Director of Agriculture or a designated RKVY Project Director).

RKVY Guide — Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, the PM-RKVY Restructuring of October 2024 and Krishonnati Yojana

Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY)is the Government of India's umbrella centrally-sponsored scheme to accelerate growth in agriculture and the allied sectors by incentivising states to plan and implement State Agriculture Plans and District Agriculture Plans. Launched on the recommendation of the National Development Council in 2007–08, converted to a Centrally Sponsored Scheme in 2014–15 and rebranded RKVY-RAFTAAR (Remunerative Approaches for Agriculture and Allied Sector Rejuvenation) in 2017–18, it was substantially restructured by the Union Cabinet on 1 October 2024 into two umbrella schemes — Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (PM-RKVY) for sustainable agriculture and Krishonnati Yojana for food security. This guide covers the legacy and restructured architecture, the cost-share pattern, State / District Agriculture Plans, the Agripreneur Programme, the sub-components that now sit under each umbrella, how farmers actually benefit, and where to find current allocations. For the wider portfolio see our India government schemes for farmers reference; sub-components such as Soil Health Card, Per Drop More Crop and PKVY now flow through PM-RKVY.

At a glance

Scheme type: umbrella centrally-sponsored scheme of the Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (DA&FW). Originally launched 2007–08 as Additional Central Assistance; converted to CSS in 2014–15; rebranded RKVY-RAFTAAR in 2017–18; restructured into PM-RKVY + Krishonnati Yojana by Cabinet on 1 October 2024.
Cost-share: 60:40 centre-state for general states, 90:10 for NE and Himalayan states, 100% central for UTs without a legislature.
Planning unit: the State Agriculture Plan (SAP) built from District Agriculture Plans (DAPs). Projects are sanctioned by the State Level Sanctioning Committee (SLSC) chaired by the Chief Secretary.
PM-RKVY consolidates: RKVY (regular), Soil Health Mission, Rainfed Area Development, Per Drop More Crop (PMKSY-PDMC), Sub-Mission on Agroforestry (SMAF), PKVY, Crop Residue Management and related sustainable-agriculture sub-components.
Krishonnati Yojana consolidates: National Food Security Mission, NMEO-Oilseeds, NMEO-OP, Sub-Mission on Seeds and Planting Material (SMSP), the Integrated Scheme on Agricultural Mechanization (ISAM) and the Sub-Mission on Agricultural Extension.
Innovation stream: Innovation & Agri-Entrepreneurship Development Programme — the ‘Agripreneur Programme’ — with R-ABIs and Knowledge Partners; idea-stage grants of up to ₹5 lakh and seed-stage grants of up to ₹25 lakh per startup.
Portals: agriwelfare.gov.in, rkvy.da.gov.in.

The October 2024 restructuring — PM-RKVY and Krishonnati Yojana

On 1 October 2024the Union Cabinet approved the rationalisation of the DA&FW centrally-sponsored portfolio into two umbrella schemes. The two-umbrella design retains each sub-component's operational identity (PKVY remains PKVY, Soil Health Card remains Soil Health Card) but lets states cross-flex up to a notified percentage between sub-components within each umbrella in a given financial year, simplifying the project appraisal route at the State Level Sanctioning Committee.

PM-RKVY (Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana) groups the sustainable agriculture instruments — including regular RKVY, the Soil Health Mission, Rainfed Area Development (RAD, originally a sub-component of the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA)), Per Drop More Crop,Sub-Mission on Agroforestry (SMAF), Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana, and Crop Residue Management. The National Mission on Natural Farming (NMNF), approved by Cabinet on 25 November 2024 as a standalone scheme, runs parallel and converges with the sustainable-agriculture sub-components in PM-RKVY.

Krishonnati Yojana groups the food security and self-sufficiency instruments — the National Food Security Mission (NFSM) (covering rice, wheat, pulses, coarse cereals / nutri-cereals and commercial crops), NMEO-Oilseeds and NMEO-OP for edible oils and oil palm, the Sub-Mission on Seeds and Planting Material, the Integrated Scheme on Agricultural Mechanization (subsuming the earlier SMAM) and the Sub-Mission on Agricultural Extension.

Centre-state cost-share and how states draw funds

Cost-share follows the standard CSS pattern: 60:40 for general states, 90:10 for the eight North-Eastern states (Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura) and the Himalayan states / UTs (Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh), and 100% centralfor the UTs without a legislature. State annual allocations are decided on the basis of the State Agriculture Plan, average expenditure on agriculture and allied sectors, gross cropped area, and weightages for productivity and sustainability indicators per the latest DA&FW operational guidelines.

The State Level Sanctioning Committee (SLSC), chaired by the Chief Secretary, sanctions individual projects against the SAP. Once sanctioned, the State Nodal Agency for RKVY — typically the Director of Agriculture or a designated RKVY Project Director — draws funds from DA&FW into a dedicated state RKVY account and releases them to the implementing department, university, KVK, R-ABI or FPO running the project. Project utilisation certificates and physical progress reports are uploaded on rkvy.da.gov.in for central monitoring.

State Agriculture Plan (SAP) and District Agriculture Plan (DAP)

RKVY funding flows against project proposals embedded in a State Agriculture Plan (SAP) — a multi-year plan covering agriculture and the allied sectors — built up from District Agriculture Plans (DAPs) prepared by each district. The SAP / DAP framework forces states to begin from a district resource baseline (soil, water, cropping pattern, livestock census, value chains, district-level productivity gaps) rather than approving one-off projects in isolation. Sub-component guidelines on agriwelfare.gov.in specify eligible activities, per-unit cost norms, the project appraisal route and the format in which the SLSC must record sanctions.

The Agripreneur Programme — Innovation and Agri-Entrepreneurship Development

Launched in 2018–19 as a flagship sub-component of RKVY-RAFTAAR and continuing under PM-RKVY, the Innovation and Agri-Entrepreneurship Development Programme— popularly called the ‘Agripreneur Programme’ — supports agritech startups through:

R-ABIs (Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana Agri-Business Incubators): business-incubator units hosted at state agricultural universities, ICAR institutes and other notified research bodies.
Knowledge Partners: select IITs, IIMs and premier agricultural institutes designated to anchor pre-incubation training and mentorship.
Idea-stage grants of up to ₹5 lakh per startup for pre-incubation pilots and prototype validation, channelled through the host R-ABI.
Seed-stage grants of up to ₹25 lakh per startup for go-to-market and early scale-up after the pre-incubation milestone is cleared.

Eligibility spans the entire agriculture value chain — production, post-harvest, agri-logistics, food processing, agri-marketing and digital agriculture / agtech. Founders apply through the host R-ABI or Knowledge Partner; the State Level Sanctioning Committee or a delegated National Selection Committee approves the cohort and releases grants in tranches against milestones.

What it actually funds on the ground

RKVY is deliberately broad. Typical activities sanctioned under state SAPs include:

Crop production: seed multiplication, demonstration plots, mini-kits for cereals, pulses, oilseeds, coarse cereals / nutri-cereals (millets) and commercial crops.
Horticulture & protected cultivation: nurseries, polyhouses, mother orchards (in convergence with MIDH where applicable).
Animal husbandry, dairy and fisheries: breed-improvement units, fodder development, fish-seed hatcheries and small-scale aquaculture infrastructure.
Mechanisation: Custom Hiring Centres (CHCs), Farm Machinery Banks (FMBs) at the village / FPO level, and demonstrations of new implements.
Soil & water: Soil Health Card sampling, soil-testing laboratory upgrades, watershed and Rainfed Area Development plots, micro-irrigation under PMKSY Per Drop More Crop.
Post-harvest & markets: primary processing units, post-harvest sheds and FPO market infrastructure that plugs into e-NAM.
Sustainable practices: PKVY organic clusters, agroforestry blocks and Crop Residue Management equipment for paddy-stubble management.
Innovation: R-ABI cohorts of agritech startups under the Agripreneur Programme.

How farmers actually benefit

RKVY is a state-led scheme — farmers do not apply to RKVY directly. Benefits reach farmers as:

Subsidised farm machinery and micro-irrigation equipment where the state has chosen those activities in its SAP.
Free Soil Health Card sampling under the Soil Health Card scheme, KVK demonstration plots and Cluster Front Line Demonstrations.
Training, Farmer Field Schools and exposure visits run by the state department and the KVK network.
R-ABI incubation if the farmer, FPO or rural youth is launching an agri-business — with the idea-stage and seed-stage grants above.
Custom Hiring Centres, Farm Machinery Banks, post-harvest sheds and primary processing units that lower the per-unit cost of mechanisation and value addition at the village level.

Convergence with PM-KISAN, KCC, PMFBY and the wider portfolio

RKVY funds infrastructure, technology adoption, sustainable practices and state-flexible projects — it does not replace direct-benefit schemes:

PM-KISAN: ₹6,000/year income support, independent of RKVY enrolment.
Kisan Credit Card: working-capital credit for crop and allied-activity expenses, independent of RKVY.
PMFBY: crop insurance against yield-loss risk, layered on the cropping cycle planned in the SAP / DAP.
PM-KMY: contributory pension for small and marginal farmers.
PMFME: credit-linked subsidy for micro food-processing enterprises, complementary to R-ABI value-chain start-ups.
e-NAM: the online market layer that RKVY-funded FPO and mandi infrastructure plugs into.
NMNF: the standalone National Mission on Natural Farming, parallel to PM-RKVY's sustainable-agriculture sub-components.
ARYA (Attracting and Retaining Youth in Agriculture): ICAR's KVK-anchored rural-youth (18-35) agripreneur programme launched in 2015-16 — ARYA cohorts with a scalable business model can layer the RKVY-RAFTAAR / PM-RKVY Agripreneur Programme idea-stage and seed-stage grants through an R-ABI or Knowledge Partner.

References

rkvy.da.gov.in — RKVY portal: state-wise allocations, sub-component dashboards, R-ABI directory and project monitoring.
agriwelfare.gov.in — Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare; RKVY / PM-RKVY operational guidelines and SLSC minutes archive.
Press Information Bureau (PIB) — Cabinet press release of 1 October 2024 approving the PM-RKVY / Krishonnati Yojana restructuring.
State Nodal Agency for RKVY — Director of Agriculture or designated RKVY Project Director in each state agriculture department.
Host R-ABIs and Knowledge Partners — state agricultural universities, ICAR institutes and notified IITs / IIMs running the Agripreneur cohorts; current list on the RKVY portal.

Frequently asked questions

What is RKVY and when was it launched?: Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) is a flagship scheme of the Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (DA&FW), Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India, launched on the recommendation of the National Development Council in 2007–08. It was created to incentivise state governments to draw up and implement state and district agriculture plans, give states flexibility to design context-specific projects, and accelerate growth in agriculture and the allied sectors (horticulture, animal husbandry, dairy, fisheries). Initially structured as Additional Central Assistance (ACA) to states, RKVY was converted into a Centrally Sponsored Scheme in 2014–15 and rebranded as RKVY-RAFTAAR (Remunerative Approaches for Agriculture and Allied Sector Rejuvenation) for the 2017–18 to 2019–20 period.
What changed for RKVY on 1 October 2024?: On 1 October 2024 the Union Cabinet approved a major restructuring of DA&FW's centrally-sponsored portfolio into two umbrella schemes. The Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (PM-RKVY) now consolidates RKVY along with sustainable-agriculture instruments such as the Soil Health Mission, Rainfed Area Development, Per Drop More Crop (PMKSY-PDMC component administered by DA&FW), Sub-Mission on Agroforestry, Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana, and Crop Residue Management. In parallel, Krishonnati Yojana consolidates production / food-security instruments such as the National Food Security Mission, NMEO-Oilseeds, NMEO-OP, Sub-Mission on Seeds and Planting Material, the Integrated Scheme on Agricultural Mechanization and the Sub-Mission on Agricultural Extension. Each component retains its operational identity but is funded and reviewed under one of the two umbrellas — letting states cross-flex up to a notified ceiling between sub-components.
What is the centre-state cost-share under RKVY / PM-RKVY?: RKVY and PM-RKVY follow the standard centrally-sponsored scheme cost-share pattern notified by the Department of Expenditure: 60:40 between the Government of India and general states, 90:10 for the eight North-Eastern states and the Himalayan states / UTs (Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh), and 100% central funding for Union Territories without a legislature. State annual allocations are decided on the basis of the State Agriculture Plan, average expenditure on agriculture and allied sectors, gross cropped area and weightages for productivity and sustainability indicators as per the latest DA&FW operational guidelines.
What is a State Agriculture Plan (SAP) and District Agriculture Plan (DAP)?: RKVY funding flows against project proposals embedded in a State Agriculture Plan (SAP) — a comprehensive multi-year plan prepared by each state covering agriculture and the allied sectors — and the underlying District Agriculture Plans (DAPs) prepared by each district. The SAP / DAP framework forces states to start from a district resource and agronomic baseline (soil, water, cropping pattern, value chains) rather than approving one-off projects in isolation. The State Level Sanctioning Committee (SLSC), chaired by the Chief Secretary, sanctions projects under RKVY against the SAP. Sub-component-wise project guidelines on agriwelfare.gov.in specify eligible activities, per-unit costs and the project appraisal route.
What is the Innovation and Agri-Entrepreneurship Development Programme (Agripreneur)?: Launched in 2018–19 as a flagship sub-component of RKVY-RAFTAAR and continuing under PM-RKVY, the Innovation and Agri-Entrepreneurship Development Programme — popularly the 'Agripreneur Programme' — supports agritech startups, R-ABIs (Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana Agri-Business Incubators) and Knowledge Partners hosted at premier agricultural institutes, state agricultural universities, ICAR institutes and IITs / IIMs designated as Knowledge Partners. Eligible agri-startups receive idea-stage grants of up to ₹5 lakh per startup and seed-stage grants of up to ₹25 lakh per startup, channelled through the host R-ABI or Knowledge Partner. The scheme covers the entire agriculture value chain — production, post-harvest, agri-logistics, food processing, agri-marketing and digital agriculture / agtech.
Which sectors and activities are eligible under RKVY / PM-RKVY?: RKVY is deliberately broad: crop production (cereals, pulses, oilseeds, coarse cereals / nutri-cereals, commercial crops), horticulture (including MIDH-aligned activities where they fall to the state), animal husbandry and dairying, fisheries and aquaculture, agricultural mechanisation, soil and water conservation, market infrastructure at the FPO / mandi level, post-harvest management and value addition, agroforestry, and a dedicated stream for innovation and agri-entrepreneurship. Under the October 2024 restructuring, sustainable-agriculture-leaning sub-components sit under PM-RKVY while production / food-security-leaning sub-components sit under Krishonnati Yojana. States have flexibility within their SAP to reallocate up to a notified percentage across eligible sub-components in a given financial year.
Who is the implementing authority and how do farmers benefit?: RKVY is a state-led scheme — sanctioning happens at the State Level Sanctioning Committee (SLSC) chaired by the Chief Secretary, and implementation is by state agriculture / horticulture / animal husbandry / fisheries departments, state agricultural universities, KVKs, R-ABIs and accredited Knowledge Partners. Farmers do not apply to RKVY directly; instead the benefits reach them as: subsidised farm machinery and micro-irrigation equipment (where the state has chosen those activities), Soil Health Card sampling, demonstration plots and Cluster Front Line Demonstrations by KVKs, training and Farmer Field Schools, R-ABI incubation if the farmer or FPO is launching an agri-business, and infrastructure such as custom-hiring centres, post-harvest sheds and primary processing units run by FPOs or state agencies on RKVY funding.
How does RKVY converge with PM-KISAN, PMFBY, KCC and other schemes?: RKVY funds infrastructure, technology adoption, value chains and state-flexible projects — it does not replace direct-benefit schemes. PM-KISAN provides ₹6,000/year income support, KCC provides working-capital credit and PMFBY provides crop insurance against yield-loss risk, all independent of RKVY enrolment. Sub-components under PM-RKVY (Soil Health, Rainfed Area Development, Per Drop More Crop, PKVY, Crop Residue Management) integrate naturally with KCC-financed input planning and PMFBY-insured cropping cycles. Under Krishonnati Yojana, the National Food Security Mission, NMEO-Oilseeds and NMEO-OP target production gains in identified crops and districts. e-NAM provides the online market layer that RKVY-funded mandi infrastructure plugs into.
Where do I find the current RKVY guidelines and state allocations?: Start with the Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare at agriwelfare.gov.in for the RKVY / PM-RKVY operational guidelines, current-year state allocations and the State Level Sanctioning Committee minutes archive. The dedicated RKVY portal at rkvy.da.gov.in publishes project-level dashboards by state and component. The Press Information Bureau (pib.gov.in) carries the 1 October 2024 Cabinet press release that approved the PM-RKVY / Krishonnati Yojana restructuring. State-level information is available on each state agriculture department's website and through the State Nodal Agency for RKVY (typically the Director of Agriculture or a designated RKVY Project Director).

Architecture, cost-share ratios and sub-component groupings above summarise the Union Cabinet approval of 1 October 2024 and publicly available DA&FW operational notes on agriwelfare.gov.in and rkvy.da.gov.in. State allocations, sub-component-wise ceilings and per-unit cost norms are revised through annual DA&FW operational circulars; State Nodal Agencies and project proponents should verify current terms before submitting to the State Level Sanctioning Committee.