The Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) is a centrally sponsored scheme launched in 2014-15 by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare to promote organic farming in India. The scheme was created to address the need for a dedicated program to encourage the adoption of traditional and indigenous practices for chemical-free agriculture.
PKVY operates by encouraging farmers to form clusters of 50 or more farmers over a minimum area of 20 hectares. The core mechanism involves providing financial assistance of Rs. 50,000 per hectare over a three-year period to each cluster. This financial support is used for various activities, including capacity building, input procurement, and marketing of organic produce. Crucially, the scheme mandates the use of the Participatory Guarantee System (PGS-India) for organic certification, which is a low-cost, decentralized, and peer-review-based system.
The scheme is implemented as a component of the umbrella program, the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY), and specifically falls under the National Mission on Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA). Recently, PKVY has been restructured and is now implemented under the revamped RKVY-Remunerative Approaches for Agriculture and Allied Sector Rejuvenation (RKVY-RAFTAAR). A significant change occurred with the introduction of the Bhartiya Prakritik Krishi Padhati (BPKP) in 2020-21 as a sub-scheme under PKVY. While PKVY broadly promotes organic farming, BPKP specifically focuses on promoting Natural Farming, which is a form of organic farming that minimizes external inputs.