Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana

PKVY is a Government of India scheme that promotes organic farming through a cluster approach. Groups of farmers convert to organic practices together, get PGS-India certification, and receive combined support for inputs, training, certification and marketing — ₹31,500 per hectare over 3 years per cluster.

A local group is at least 20 farmers cultivating a contiguous 20 hectares. 25 to 50 such groups — covering 500 to 1,000 hectares (500 in hilly areas) — are combined by the State Government into one cluster, supported by a Regional Council and a Support Agency.

States/UTs receive ₹31,500 per hectare over 3 years for each organic cluster. Of this, ₹15,000/ha is paid directly to farmers by DBT for organic inputs, ₹9,000/ha funds training and capacity building, ₹4,500/ha supports marketing, packaging and branding, and ₹3,000/ha covers certification and residue analysis. A farmer can receive support on up to 2 hectares.

The Revised PKVY Guidelines (1 February 2022) list a more detailed ₹50,000/ha, ₹500-lakh-per-1,000-ha-cluster break-up that includes implementation-agency and Regional Council costs alongside the farmer-facing components. The Ministry’s current public communication (PIB, 2025) states the headline assistance as ₹31,500/ha over 3 years for inputs, training, certification and marketing. Treat ₹31,500/ha as the figure that reaches the cluster’s core farmer-facing components today, and check agriwelfare.gov.in for the latest detailed cost norms before budgeting a specific project.

The Participatory Guarantee System for India (PGS-India) is a peer-reviewed, group-based organic certification run by the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare. Farmers in the same local group inspect each other’s fields instead of paying a third-party certification agency, and the group collectively decides each member’s certification status based on that peer appraisal.

NPOP (National Programme for Organic Production) certification is done by an accredited third-party agency under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, mainly for export-oriented and value-chain certification. PGS-India is a farmer-group, peer-appraisal system under the Ministry of Agriculture, aimed at the domestic market and designed to be affordable for small and marginal farmers. PKVY funds PGS-India certification for its clusters; farmers may separately opt for NPOP at their own cost.

PGS-Green is the status given during the conversion period — the produce is grown to full organic standards but the land has not yet completed the required conversion time. PGS-Organic is granted once the group’s land has completed conversion and fully meets PGS-India standards, confirmed through peer appraisal.

PKVY projects run over a 3-year cycle, matching the standard organic conversion period. Peer appraisals happen at least once a growing season during this time, and the group can request certification once the standard is fully met.

PKVY assistance flows to farmer groups and clusters, not individual applicants. A farmer joins or helps form a local group of at least 20 farmers (PGS-India separately allows individual registration for smaller groups of 5+, who are expected to join or form a bigger group within 2 years).

There is no individual online application. A farmer joins or forms a local group with others in the village or nearby villages, and the group registers with the nearest PGS-India Regional Council. The State Agriculture Department then includes eligible groups in its cluster-wise Annual Action Plan submitted to the Ministry each year.

A signed application form and farmer’s pledge, a farm-history sheet, Aadhaar, a bank account for DBT, basic land records for the plot being enrolled, and a signed group agreement committing to PGS-India standards.

No. Organic farming promotion in the North Eastern States is handled by a separate scheme — Mission Organic Value Chain Development for North Eastern Region (MOVCDNER) — which provides ₹46,500/ha over 3 years, a different rate structured for that region.

PKVY itself continues as a distinct scheme, now administered as a component under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) umbrella for funding purposes. Its natural-farming component, Bharatiya Prakritik Krishi Paddhati (BPKP), which ran under PKVY from 2020-21 to 2022-23, has since been restructured into the separate National Mission on Natural Farming (NMNF). PKVY’s organic-farming and PGS-India certification role is unchanged.

Jaivik Kheti is the Ministry’s dedicated portal for organic farming — a knowledge and direct-marketing platform where certified farmers, local groups, input suppliers and buyers can register and trade organic produce, reducing dependence on middlemen.

No fee is charged to farmers for PGS-India certification obtained through a PKVY-supported group — the ₹3,000/ha certification and residue-analysis component covers this. Farmers opting for Large Area Certification or third-party NPOP certification outside the scheme may face separate, self-funded costs.

The PGS-India portal (pgsindia-ncof.gov.in) publishes Regional Council, group and certificate data publicly. For scheme-level guidelines and progress, see agriwelfare.gov.in and PIB backgrounders on pib.gov.in.