Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan launched PRAGATI, a multi-partner rural development programme, on Thursday. The initiative aims to build a network of 20,000 agri-entrepreneurs and reach 20 lakh farmers across eight states over the coming years.

The programme is backed by the PepsiCo Foundation, State Bank of India Foundation, Gates Foundation, IDH, Heifer International, Environmental Defense Fund, Global Agri Entrepreneurship Academy, Sustainable Agriculture Foundations International Association, Agri Entrepreneur Growth Foundation, and Transform Rural India Foundation.

PRAGATI will operate in Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan. It builds on an existing base of 26,000 agri-entrepreneurs already working with 2.6 million farmers under an earlier model run by some of the same partners.

Under the new programme, entrepreneurs will be trained to offer farmers advisory services, soil health testing, mechanization support, credit linkages, and market access, operating through 20,000 planned kiosks. Organisers said the plan targets a 30 percent rise in farmer incomes and a 15 to 20 percent increase in yields of crops including paddy, maize and potato, alongside wider adoption of regenerative farming methods among at least a fifth of participating farmers. The programme also aims to expand access to formal financial systems, insurance, and government entitlements for at least half of associated farmers.

Speaking at the launch, Chouhan said India's agricultural transformation requires more than higher output. He pointed to lower cultivation costs, crop diversification and value addition as priorities for the sector, and said the government's focus extends beyond production targets to raising farmer incomes and making agriculture more profitable. He said small and marginal farmers cannot rely on traditional farming alone and that promoting value addition, food processing, and agriculture-based entrepreneurship is necessary. He identified horticulture, livestock, fisheries and beekeeping as areas with potential to raise incomes, and cited drones, digital advisory services and scientific farming as tools for the sector's future.

Representatives of the partner organisations spoke at the event. Monica Bauer, senior vice president of global social impact at PepsiCo and president of the PepsiCo Foundation, said farmers remain central to the company's supply chain and that the partnership would expand their access to sustainable growing methods. Jagrut Kotecha, chief executive of PepsiCo India and South Asia, said the programme reflects the company's approach to building long-term partnerships across the agricultural value chain.

Swapan Dhan, managing director and chief executive of SBI Foundation, described the programme as a step toward financial inclusion for rural communities. Archna Vyas, interim country director of Gates Foundation India, said the initiative places emphasis on expanding opportunities for women in farming, production and last-mile services.

Alan Johnson, director at the Global Agri Entrepreneurship Academy and lead for smallholder farmers' supply chain at the International Finance Corporation, part of the World Bank Group, said the programme scales an existing agri-entrepreneurship model to build rural leadership. Hisham Mundol, chief adviser for India at the Environmental Defense Fund, said the initiative combines data-driven approaches with last-mile delivery systems. Simon Winter, executive director of the Sustainable Agriculture Foundation's International Association, said the programme invests in youth and women entrepreneurs to support the shift toward regenerative farming. Rina Soni, executive director of Passing Gifts Private Limited, a Heifer International subsidiary, said the programme positions farmers as entrepreneurs and community leaders rather than beneficiaries.

The programme includes a monitoring and evaluation framework intended to track outcomes throughout its implementation. Organisers describe it as one of the largest privately backed agri-entrepreneurship efforts undertaken in India to date, covering states with a combined smallholder farming population running into the tens of millions.