Rural development programmes (RDPs) can be broadly classified as enterprise oriented and labour service oriented programmes. This paper discusses the strategy that needs to be adopted for ensuring effective implementation of enterprise oriented programmes. The key features for ensuring success of such programmes are: a) centralisation of the management of risky activities, b) making the activity size neutral at the individual level, and c) controlling a sizeable share in the output market. This will not only make the project economically viable but also acceptable to the beneficiaries. More importantly if the programmes are organized in this way there would be no need for any subsidy. We have shown how these key features could be incorporated by taking example of one most popular RDP on poultry. Identical steps ae necessary for ensuring success of similar enterprise oriented RDPs.