YSR Rythu Bharosa

What was YSR Rythu Bharosa?

YSR Rythu Bharosa was the flagship farm income support scheme of the Andhra Pradesh Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, launched on 15 October 2019 at the start of the Rabi 2019-20 season. The scheme paid Rs 13,500 per farmer family per financial year in three instalments, delivered by Direct Benefit Transfer into an Aadhaar-seeded bank account.

The scheme is widely known by its Telugu name, YSR Rythu Bharosa; "rythu" meaning farmer and "bharosa" meaning assurance. Readers searching for "వైఎస్సార్ రైతు భరోసా" or "YSR Rythu Bharosa PM Kisan" are looking for this same programme.

YSR Rythu Bharosa combined two funding streams into a single credit. Rs 6,000 a year came from the central PM-KISAN scheme, and the balance came from the Andhra Pradesh state budget. Because the two were paid together, most farmers saw one combined transfer rather than separate state and central payments, and the scheme was formally styled "YSR Rythu Bharosa – PM Kisan".

Important status update. Following the change of government in Andhra Pradesh in June 2024, YSR Rythu Bharosa was renamed Annadata Sukhibhava, restoring an earlier name used between 2014 and 2019, and the annual benefit was raised from Rs 13,500 to Rs 20,000 per farmer family. The old ysrrythubharosa.ap.gov.in portal was discontinued. Existing beneficiaries were migrated automatically and were not required to submit a fresh application. This guide documents the scheme as it operated, because lakhs of farmers still search for it by the old name and still need to trace old payments.

Who was eligible for YSR Rythu Bharosa?

The scheme recognised two distinct beneficiary categories.

Land-owning farmer families could receive the benefit if:

• The family collectively owned cultivable land in Andhra Pradesh, regardless of how small the holding was. There was no minimum or maximum acreage.
• The land record stood in a family member's name in the Webland database as on the cut-off date of 30 September 2019 for the first year.
• The family held a bank account seeded with Aadhaar in the NPCI mapper.
• Families cultivating ROFR (Recognition of Forest Rights) land, D-Patta land, or acquired land for which compensation had not been paid were included.

Landless cultivators could receive the benefit if:

• They belonged to SC, ST, BC or minority communities. This category was deliberately restricted; landless cultivators outside these groups were not covered.
• They actually cultivated land as tenants, ROFR holders, or on inam or temple land, and were identified as such in a Grama Sabha.
• They held a valid Crop Cultivator Rights Card (CCRC) issued at the Village Secretariat for the season.
• Only one tenant per landowner family could be enrolled, to prevent a single holding generating multiple claims.

Landless cultivators received the full Rs 13,500 from state funds, since they did not qualify for the central PM-KISAN component that requires land ownership.

Farmers were not eligible if any family member:

• Held institutional land, land in the name of a trust, society, company or institution rather than a farming family.
• Was a current or former holder of a constitutional post, a serving or former Minister, MP, MLA or MLC, or a mayor or zilla parishad chairperson.
• Was a serving or retired government employee of the central or state government, a PSU or an autonomous body, or a regular employee of a local body. Class IV and Group D staff were exempt from this exclusion and stayed eligible.
• Drew a monthly pension of Rs 10,000 or more, again excluding Class IV retirees.
• Paid income tax in the last assessment year, or had paid commercial tax, professional tax or GST recently.
• Was a registered practising professional: doctor, engineer, lawyer, chartered accountant or architect.
• Owned farmland that had been converted to non-agricultural use.

The guidelines carried one humane exception: an unmarried son or daughter holding a government job did not by itself disqualify an otherwise eligible farmer family.

What documents were required?

How to apply for the successor scheme

YSR Rythu Bharosa itself is no longer accepting applications under that name. Farmers who want the current income support must be on the Annadata Sukhibhava list, which is built from PM-KISAN registration. The route is:

1. Register for PM-KISAN first, either online at pmkisan.gov.in under New Farmer Registration, or with help at your village Rythu Bharosa Kendram or Grama Sachivalayam. Carry your Aadhaar card, adangal or pattadar passbook, and bank passbook.
2. Complete Aadhaar-based e-KYC, using OTP on the PM-KISAN portal, face authentication in the PM-KISAN mobile app, or biometric e-KYC at a Common Service Centre. Instalments are withheld until e-KYC shows complete.
3. Get your bank account Aadhaar-seeded at your bank branch. A merely Aadhaar-linked account is not enough — the seeding must be recorded in the NPCI mapper, otherwise the DBT credit will fail.
4. Have the land record verified by the Village Revenue Officer so that land seeding shows complete against your record in Webland.
5. Tenant cultivators should approach the Village Secretariat for a Crop Cultivator Rights Card for the current season, and ask to be listed in the Grama Sabha identification exercise.
6. Check the beneficiary list published at annadathasukhibhava.ap.gov.in and at the Grama Sachivalayam notice board once enrolment closes for the season.

How to apply offline through the village secretariat

1. Visit your Grama Sachivalayam or Rythu Bharosa Kendram during working hours with Aadhaar, land documents and bank passbook.
2. Ask the Village Agriculture Assistant to check your record against the PM-KISAN and Webland databases and to raise a fresh enrolment or correction request if you are missing.
3. Collect the acknowledgement slip with the request number. Grievances are meant to be disposed of on merit, preferably within two weeks.
4. Follow up at the Mandal Agriculture Office if the request is not closed within that window.

How much did the scheme pay and on what schedule?

YSR Rythu Bharosa paid Rs 13,500 per family per year on a fixed three-part calendar tied to the cropping seasons:

The front-loaded first instalment was deliberate: the largest single payment landed in May, just before Kharif sowing, when farmers face their heaviest input bill for seed and fertiliser and are most exposed to informal moneylenders.

Under Annadata Sukhibhava the annual figure is now Rs 20,000, still paid in three instalments and still inclusive of the Rs 6,000 PM-KISAN component.

How was verification carried out?

The Department of Real Time Governance ran the data spine for the scheme, cross-matching Webland land records, PM-KISAN registrations, Aadhaar and bank seeding data, plus income tax, GST and government payroll databases to apply the exclusion list automatically.

Field verification was layered. Village-level identification of tenants happened through Grama Sabhas with joint ground verification by agricultural and revenue officers. Above that, 5 percent of cases were randomly re-verified at mandal level and 2 percent at divisional level, which is how wrongly enrolled beneficiaries were caught after the fact.

Why payments were rejected or stopped

• e-KYC not completed, the single largest cause of held instalments.
• Bank account not Aadhaar-seeded in the NPCI mapper, so the DBT credit bounced back.
• Name mismatch between the Aadhaar record and the bank account.
• Land seeding incomplete in Webland, or the adangal standing in a deceased parent's name after an unrecorded succession.
• Exclusion flag triggered, most commonly an income tax return filed by any family member in the previous assessment year.
• Duplicate claim within the same family, or two tenants claiming against one landowner family.
• CCRC not renewed for the season by a tenant cultivator. The card is season-specific, not permanent, and lapsing it is the most common tenant rejection.

The fix for the first three is with the farmer and the bank. The fix for land seeding and succession lies with the Village Revenue Officer and the Mandal Revenue Office, and repeating e-KYC will not clear it.

Where to raise a grievance

Andhra Pradesh ran a three-tier grievance structure for the scheme, and the same structure carries over to Annadata Sukhibhava:

• Mandal level, committee chaired by the Tahsildar. The first stop.

• District level, committee chaired by the District Collector.

• State level; committee chaired by the Principal Secretary, Agriculture and Cooperation.

• Toll-free helplines: 1902 and 1100, both run by the Real Time Governance call centre.

• In person: your Rythu Bharosa Kendram or Grama Sachivalayam.

Enrolment and verification are free at every stage. No official or middleman may charge a fee to add a name to the beneficiary list, and no genuine government officer will ever ask for your Aadhaar OTP.