YSR Input Subsidy Scheme (Andhra Pradesh)

What is the YSR Input Subsidy Scheme?

YSR Input Subsidy Scheme is Andhra Pradesh's crop-loss compensation programme, run by the Department of Agriculture & Cooperation. When a natural calamity destroys a standing crop, the scheme pays the affected farmer a per-hectare input subsidy; money meant to cover the cost of the seed, fertiliser and labour already sunk into the lost crop, so the farmer can re-sow rather than borrow.

YSR Input Subsidy Scheme was framed around one promise that separates it from the older relief practice: the state undertook to pay input subsidy within the same season in which the loss occurred, instead of the traditional pattern where compensation for a cyclone arrived a year or two later, long after the farmer had already gone to a moneylender. The Agriculture Department's stated purpose for the scheme is to keep calamity-hit farmers out of the debt trap.

Andhra Pradesh is unusually exposed to crop calamity. The state's long coastline takes repeated Bay of Bengal cyclones, the Rayalaseema districts face recurring drought, and the delta districts flood. Input subsidy is therefore not an occasional payment in Andhra Pradesh, it is close to an annual one, and the department has reported cumulative disbursement running into thousands of crores across the scheme's life, covering more than 20 lakh farmer instances.

Like the state's crop insurance, the scheme rests on e-Crop: now renamed e-Panta. The digital crop booking done at the village Rythu Seva Kendra (formerly Rythu Bharosa Kendra). e-Crop records the survey number, the crop, the extent and the name of the actual cultivator. It is the record against which damage is assessed and money is paid, which is why a crop that was never e-Crop booked cannot be compensated no matter how visibly it was destroyed.

Who is eligible for input subsidy?

You can receive input subsidy if:

• You are a farmer cultivating in Andhra Pradesh, whether an owner-cultivator, a small or marginal farmer, or a tenant.
• Your crop was booked in e-Crop / e-Panta for the season in which the damage occurred, against your name.
• Your crop was damaged by a notified natural calamity: cyclone, heavy rain, flood, drought, hailstorm, or a severe pest or disease outbreak that the state notifies for relief.
• Your damaged area is enumerated by the Agriculture Department's field staff and appears in the village damage list.
• You are a tenant farmer or sharecropper holding a Crop Cultivator Rights Card, in which case the payment reaches you rather than the landowner.

You are not eligible if:

• Your crop was not e-Crop booked for that season. This is the single most common reason a genuinely affected farmer receives nothing.
• The crop in the field differs from the crop booked, since enumeration and payment both work off the booked record.
• The loss is not from a notified calamity. A price crash, a market glut, or loss caused by neglect is not compensable input subsidy.
• Your area was not enumerated because the damage fell below the assessment threshold applied for that calamity, or the field was outside the notified affected mandals.
• You are a tenant without a Crop Cultivator Rights Card. You are not barred from farming, but the payment for your loss will be credited to the landowner whose name stands on the record.

How much does the YSR Input Subsidy Scheme pay?

Input subsidy is paid per hectare of damaged area, not as a flat sum per farmer, and the rate depends on the crop category. Andhra Pradesh applies the State Disaster Response Fund norms, which set three distinct per-hectare rates:

• Rainfed crops. The lowest per-hectare rate, applied to crops grown without assured irrigation.
• Crops with assured irrigation — a higher rate, roughly double the rainfed rate, reflecting the greater input cost sunk into the crop.
• Perennial crops, the highest per-hectare rate, applied to horticultural and plantation crops where the loss is of a standing asset built over years.

Two limits shape the final amount. A minimum assistance floor of Rs 1,000 per affected farmer ensures that a very small holding still receives something, and assistance is normally capped at 2 hectares per farmer. Where the state has declared enhanced relief after a severe cyclone, it has paid above the SDRF rate from its own funds; farmers should confirm the rate notified for the specific calamity rather than assume a standard figure.

Payment is made by Direct Benefit Transfer into the Aadhaar-seeded bank account of the cultivator named in e-Panta.

How to apply for input subsidy in Andhra Pradesh

Input subsidy is enumeration-driven rather than application-driven, so the steps below describe what a farmer actually has to do to be paid.

1. Get the crop e-Panta booked at sowing. Ensure the Village Agriculture Assistant records your crop, extent, survey number and your name at the Rythu Seva Kendra, and collect the acknowledgement receipt. This is done at the start of the season, long before any calamity, and it is what makes you eligible later.
2. Report the damage immediately after the calamity at your Rythu Seva Kendra, and do not clear or replough the field before the field staff have seen it. Enumeration is a physical inspection of the standing damage.
3. Cooperate with the enumeration by the Village Agriculture Assistant and Village Revenue Officer, who record the damaged extent against the e-Panta entry.
4. Check the village damage list when it is displayed at the Rythu Seva Kendra and Grama Sachivalayam. Verify your name, your survey numbers, the crop and the extent shown as damaged.
5. File an objection during the display period if your name is missing or the extent is understated. Objections are received at the Rythu Seva Kendra and resolved by the Mandal Agriculture Officer, and the window is short: days, not months.
6. Confirm your bank account is Aadhaar-seeded and active at the Grama Sachivalayam, so the DBT credit does not fail.
7. Check the final beneficiary list displayed after sanction, and the bank account statement, for the credit.

How to check input subsidy status

1. Visit the Rythu Seva Kendra with your e-Panta receipt and Aadhaar and ask the Village Agriculture Assistant to check your record and payment status.
2. Read the damage and beneficiary lists displayed at the Rythu Seva Kendra and Grama Sachivalayam after each calamity. Andhra Pradesh runs a social audit of these lists precisely so that exclusions can be caught in the village.
3. Check the Aadhaar-seeded bank account statement, since DBT credits often arrive without an SMS reaching a changed mobile number.
4. Use the Agriculture Department's information services at apagrisnet.gov.in and the department call centre for scheme-level queries.

Why input subsidy payments fail

• No e-Crop / e-Panta booking for the damaged season, the most frequent cause, and one that cannot be repaired after the season.
• Crop mismatch between the field and the booked record.
• Name of the landowner, not the tenant, on the record, so the tenant's loss is compensated to someone else. The fix is a Crop Cultivator Rights Card taken before sowing.
• Missed objection window on the village damage list.
• Bank account not Aadhaar-seeded, closed or dormant, so the DBT credit bounces.
• Understated extent in enumeration, where only part of the damaged area was recorded.
• Area outside the notified affected mandals for that calamity.

Key dates

YSR Input Subsidy Scheme has no annual application window. The cycle starts with a calamity: notification of affected mandals, field enumeration, display of the village damage list, a short objection period, sanction and DBT release. Because the scheme's own commitment is same-season payment, the whole cycle is meant to close within weeks of the loss. The dates that matter to a farmer are the e-Panta booking window at sowing and the objection period on the damage list, and both are announced locally at the Rythu Seva Kendra.

Help and grievance redressal

• Andhra Pradesh Agriculture Department call centre: 155251
• Rythu Seva Kendra in your village, for e-Panta correction, damage reporting and objections
• Mandal Agriculture Officer, then the District Joint Director of Agriculture, for names wrongly excluded from the damage list
• Grama / Ward Sachivalayam, for Aadhaar seeding and bank account corrections
• Public Grievance Redressal System (PGRS), the state's grievance platform formerly known as Spandana

Input subsidy is paid free of any charge. No agent can get a name added to a damage list for a fee, and no official will ask a farmer for a bank OTP.