RKVY-Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana Gets Quantum Jump in Funds

The Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) will be implemented in the coming year (2011-12) with a budget of Rs. 7860 crore and nine sub-schemes. This represents a quantum jump in funds from Rs. 6775 crore in 2010-11 and wide expansion in the scope of the scheme.

Sharing the progress of implementation of Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana with the Parliamentary Consultative Committee here today, Agriculture Minister, Shri Sharad Pawar informed that the mega programme for agricultural rejuvenation will continue to allow full flexibility and authority to the States even after its expansion.

The RKVY will now have nine sub-schemes. Three of the sub-schemes were introduced in 2010-11 and will be continued this year also. The sub-schemes are as follows:

i. Extending Green Revolution to the Eastern Region of the Country. This sub-scheme gets an allocation of Rs. 400 crore and targets improvement in the rice based cropping systems of Assam, West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand, eastern Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

ii. Integrated Development of 60,000 Pulses Villages in Rainfed Areas. This sub-scheme aims at attaining self-sufficiency in production of pulses within the next three years. An amount of Rs.300 crores has been proposed to promote 60,000 pulses villages in rainfed areas for increasing crop productivity and strengthening market linkages.

iii. Promotion of Oil Palm. It seeks to achieve a major breakthrough, special attention will be paid to oil palm as it is one of the most efficient oil crops. Accordingly, an amount of Rs. 300 crores has been provided to bring 60,000 hectares under oil palm plantation, by integrating the farmers with the markets.

iv. Initiative on Vegetable Clusters. Growing demand for vegetables will be met by a robust increase in the productivity and market linkage. For this purpose, an efficient supply chain will be established, to make quality vegetables available at competitive prices. An amount of Rs.300 crores has been provided for this.

v. Nutri-cereals. To promote balanced nutrition, higher production of bajra, jowar, ragi and other millets will be promoted. Additionally, projects will be taken up to upgrade their processing technologies and create awareness regarding their health benefits. This initiative would provide market linked production support to ten lakh millet farmers in the arid and semi-arid regions of the country. The programme would be taken up in 1000 compact blocks covering about 25,000 villages. Outlay for this programme is Rs. 300 crores.

vi. National Mission for Protein Supplements. This Mission is being launched with an allocation of Rs.300 crores to take up activities to promote animal based protein production through livestock development, dairy farming, piggery, goat rearing and fisheries in selected blocks.

vii. Accelerated Fodder Development Programme. To accelerate the production of fodder through intensive promotion of technologies to ensure its availability throughout the year, Rs. 300 crores have been provided for Accelerated Fodder Development Programme. It will benefit farmers in 25,000 villages.

viii. Rainfed Area Development Programme. This programme aims at improving productivity of crops in rainfed areas.

ix. Saffron Mission. This programme aims at revival of saffron cultivation in Jammu & Kashmir. It gets an allocation of Rs. 105 crores during 2011-12.

The Ministers of State for Agriculture, Shri Arun Yadav and Shri Harish Rawat were also present in the meeting. MPs who participated in the meeting included Shri Sharief-ud-din Sharif, Shri M. Krishnaswamy, Shri K.P. Dhanapalan, Shri Hansraj Gangaram Ahir and Smt. Santosh Chowdhary of Lok Sabha, Shri Govindrao Adik, Shri VikramVikram Verma, Dr. K.P. Ramalingam, Shri T.M. Selvaganapathi, Smt. Mohsina Kidwai, Smt. Renubala Pradhan, Smt. Kusum Rai and Ms Mabel Rebello of Rajya Sabha.

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GSAT-12 to Launch Mid-July on PSLV

(ISRO) will launch its next communication satellite, GSAT-12, in the second week of July from the Sriharikota space center on a PSLV C-17 vehicle.On the heels of the successful launch of its communication satellite GSAT-8, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is gearing up to launch the next communication satellite GSAT-12 .

“GSAT-12 will be moved from Bangalore to Sriharikota on Thursday (June 2) for conducting various pre-launch tests. The assembling of the launch vehicle has also commenced. “After the failure of the GSLV rocket in December, ISRO has decided to put all of its focus on developing the cryogenic engines that powered Mark-2 launch vehicles.”

The GSAT-12 mission follows Ariane space’s successful launch of ISRO’s communication satellite GSAT-8 in May. GSAT-12, built at a cost of Rs.148 crore, has 12 transponders in an extended C-Band and will help users in the field of tele-medicine, tele-education, social services, etc. The launch vehicle was expected to cost about Rs.100 crore. The satellite had been put on 55 degree east of geo-station orbit on Wednesday. Users of some of the decommissioned satellites would be moved to this, he said.

GSAT-8 satellite services would be available for users by the end of June following three weeks of in-orbit transponders tests currently underway.

India will launch five satellites by June, including one for advanced remote sensing and two for communications, say officials of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

The first launch, scheduled for April 2011, will be of Resourcesat-2, intended for study and management of natural resources and sending back pictures and other data, and two other satellites.

India has the largest constellation of remote sensing satellites in the world providing imagery in a variety of spatial resolutions from better than a metre ranging up to 500 metres, and is a major player in vending such data in the global market.

ISRO will then launch two communication satellites – GSAT-8 from French Guyana and GSAT-12 from India – by June this year. These will serve the needs of the telecommunication and television sectors.

An ISRO official, GSAT-8 will augment the growing demand for communication transponders (automatic receivers and transmitters for communication and broadcast of signals).

With India in the process of developing a rocket that could carry a three-tonne satellite, GSAT-8 will be launched by Ariane rocket from French Guyana this May 2011.

Following that will be the launch of GSAT-12 using the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) from ISRO’s rocket port at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, around 80 km from Chennai this July 2011..

Weighing 1,425 kg, GSAT-12, with 12 extended C band transponders, is expected to be launched in July 2011.

The satellite is expected to serve the Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) sector, used to transmit data like point of sale transactions or to provide satellite internet access and others.

Though PSLV rockets are largely used by ISRO to launch remote sensing/earth observation satellites, it has also been used to put into orbit communication satellites in geo transfer orbit (GTO).

According to ISRO officials, the PSLV rocket that will carry GSAT-12 will weigh over 300 tonnes – heavier than the standard PSLV rocket that weigh around 290 tonnes at lift off.

The rocket will be powered with much longer strap-on motors containing more fuel.

ISRO is also mulling the launch of another remote sensing satellite, Megha-Tropiques in July, to study and understand the life cycle of convective systems and their role in the associated energy and moisture budget of the atmosphere in the tropical regions.

The PSLV that will carry three satellites – the 1,200 kg Resourcesat-2 satellite, the 92 kg joint Indo-Russian nanosatellite Youthsat for stellar and atmospheric studies, and a 105 kg microsatellite X-sat for imaging applications, built by the Singapore-based Nanyang Technological University.

Not wanting to risk a failure, the Indian space agency decided to test a gas motor fitted in the second stage/engine, powered by liquid fuel, for high temperature tolerance levels after dismantling the fully assembled rocket.

This was the second time within an year that ISRO has dismantled a fully-assembled PSLV rocket to check out a component in the rocket’s second stage.

Last April, prior to the launch of Cartosat-2B satellite and a couple of other payloads, the rocket was dismantled to replace a faulty component.

The 44-metre tall PSLV is a four-stage (engine) rocket powered by solid and liquid propellants alternatively. The first and third stages are fired by solid propellant and the second and fourth stages are fired by liquid propellant.

India to launch 12 foreign satellites too
India has bagged multi-million dollar contracts to launch 12 foreign satellites in the lower orbit from its spaceport over the next two years, a top space agency official said Wednesday.

"Through our commercial arm Antrix Corporation, we have received orders from Canada, Indonesia, Germany and other European countries to launch a dozen satellites in the sun-synchronous orbit during the next two years," state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman K. Radhakrishnan told.

Of the 12 satellites, four are from Canada, two each from Indonesia and Germany and one from Luxembourg. The remaining three spacecraft are from universities in Europe.

"We have an order from Germany to launch an 800-kg dedicated satellite (N-Map) for environmental studies. The other satellites, weighing between 80-100 kg will be launched on board our polar satellite launch vehicles (PSLVs) as additional payloads along with Indian communications or remote-sensing satellites," an Antrix official said.

Antrix is also in negotiations with France to launch a remote sensing satellite (EnMAP) in the lower orbit.

India has already launched a total of 26 foreign satellites during the past decade for various countries, including Germany, Italy, Israel, Korea and Singapore.

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Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY)-Rs.25000 CRORE for Kerala

Particulars	National Agriculture Development Programme (NADP) / Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) Description
Name of the Scheme	Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY)
Sponsored by	Central Government
Funding Pattern	The fund has been provided to the State as 100% Grant.
Ministry/Department	Agriculture Department
Description	This is a special central assistance scheme of the Government of India and implemented by the Government of Kerala, primarily aimed at evolving a strategy to rejuvenate the agriculture sector of the State. As per the scheme, the Government of Kerala has to prepare the State and District-level plans in the field of agriculture and allied sectors, based on guidelines issued by the Planning Commission, for availing financial assistance from Government of India.The objectives of the scheme, in general, are to provide incentives to the State for increasing public investment in agriculture and allied sectors, and in particalr, (1)to ensure that agriculture for the State and districts are prepared based on agro-climatic conditions, availability of technology and natural resources; (2)to make sure that local needs/crops/priorities are better reflected in the agricultural plan of the State; (3)to reduce yield gaps in important crops through focused interventions; (4)Maximisation of returns to farmers in agriculture and allied sectors; (5)to bring about quantifiable changes in production and productivity of various components of agriculture and allied sectors by addressing them in a holistic manner.The allocation for the scheme is Rs.6011.10 lakhs
Beneficiaries	Individual,Family,Community,Women
Benefits
Benefit Type	Material,Loan,Subsidy
Eligibility criteria	The Department of Agriculture has to prepare Agriculture plans and State Agriculture plans based on the guidelines of the Planning Commission through the State Planning Board.
How to Avail	Through the Agriculture Department and Local Self Governments.
Validity of the Scheme
Introduced On	01 / 08 / 2007
Valid Upto	06 / 08 / 2012

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