Assistance of Concentrate Feed for Pregnant Animals (General Category)

What is the Assistance of Concentrate Feed for Pregnant Animals scheme?

Assistance of Concentrate Feed for Pregnant Animals is a scheme of the Directorate of Animal Husbandry under the Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Co-operation Department, Government of Gujarat. The scheme supplies free BIS Type II concentrate cattle feed for a pregnant cow or buffalo owned by a General Category livestock keeper, so that the animal is properly fed through the most demanding phase of its production cycle.

The department's stated purpose for the scheme is threefold: to keep the pregnant animal in good health, to boost its immunity, and to prevent metabolic diseases that cluster around calving.

The version of the scheme described here is the General Category component. Gujarat runs the same feed assistance idea through parallel components for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe livestock owners, and through a related component for the post-parturition period, immediately after calving. A livestock owner applies under whichever component matches their category and the stage of the animal, not under all of them.

Why concentrate feed matters in late pregnancy

This is the part of the scheme worth understanding properly, because it explains why the state pays for feed rather than for medicine.

In the last eight to ten weeks of pregnancy, a cow or buffalo carries a foetus that is growing faster than at any earlier stage, while the animal is simultaneously preparing the udder for lactation. Green fodder and dry roughage alone rarely meet the protein, energy and mineral demand of that period, particularly in a smallholding where fodder quality is variable and the animal is often dry and therefore earning nothing.

An underfed animal at this stage is exposed to a well-known set of problems: weak calves and low birth weight, retained placenta, poor colostrum, a longer gap before the next conception, and metabolic disorders such as milk fever and ketosis in the days around calving. The economics for the household are harsh, because these losses land exactly when the animal has been consuming feed for months without producing milk. Supplying a standard-grade concentrate at that point is a low-cost intervention against a high-cost failure.

BIS Type II is the specification the scheme uses. It is a compound cattle feed grade defined by the Bureau of Indian Standards, with a higher protein and energy specification than Type I. Naming a BIS grade in the scheme is what prevents the benefit from degrading into whatever feed happens to be cheapest locally.

Who is eligible for the concentrate feed scheme?

You can apply if:

• You are a livestock owner resident in Gujarat.
• You belong to the General Category, for this particular component.
• You own a cow or buffalo whose pregnancy is confirmed by departmental veterinary staff.

You cannot apply if:

• You belong to the Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe category; not because you are excluded from the benefit, but because you are not eligible under this component and must apply under the SC or ST component of the feed assistance programme instead.
• The animal is not pregnant, or the pregnancy has not been confirmed. A self-declaration is not sufficient.
• The animal is not a cow or buffalo.
• You are resident outside Gujarat.
• The district target for the year is exhausted. iKhedut schemes are worked against annual targets, and applications beyond the target are not sanctioned even if otherwise valid.

What documents are required?

How to apply for concentrate feed assistance

1. Get the pregnancy confirmed by the veterinary officer at your government veterinary dispensary or sub-centre, and note the animal's ear tag number.
2. Open the iKhedut portal at ikhedut.gujarat.gov.in during the application window notified for the financial year.
3. Select Schemes (Yojanao), then Animal Husbandry Schemes, and choose the concentrate feed assistance scheme for pregnant animals under the General Category.
4. Register as a new applicant with your Aadhaar and mobile number, or sign in with your existing iKhedut registration number.
5. Fill in the application with your personal details, category, animal details and bank account details, then upload the documents.
6. Confirm the application. An unconfirmed application does not enter the queue, and confirmation cannot be undone.
7. Print the confirmed application, sign it or affix a thumb impression, and submit it with photocopies of the documents at your taluka animal husbandry office, or upload the signed scan where the portal permits.
8. Collect the feed as directed once the application is sanctioned. The taluka office will tell you the distribution point and the schedule.

Farmers who cannot use the portal can have the form filled at a Village Computer Entrepreneur at the gram panchayat e-Gram centre, or at a Common Service Centre, and then collect the printout.

How to check your application status

1. Open ikhedut.gujarat.gov.in and select Application Status.
2. Enter your application or reference number and registered mobile number.
3. If the status has not changed for several weeks after the window closes, follow up at the taluka animal husbandry office with your printed application.

Why applications get rejected

• Pregnancy not confirmed by the veterinary officer, or confirmation not attached.
• Application confirmed online but the signed printout never submitted at the taluka office — the most avoidable rejection in every iKhedut scheme.
• Wrong category component chosen, for example an SC applicant applying under the General Category component.
• Animal ownership not established, with no ear tag and no cattle register entry.
• District target exhausted for the financial year.
• Duplicate claim for the same animal or the same beneficiary in one year.

Where to get help

• Government veterinary dispensary or sub-centre for pregnancy confirmation and animal identification.
• Taluka Animal Husbandry Office for the application, sanction and feed distribution.
• District Deputy Director of Animal Husbandry for escalation.
• Directorate of Animal Husbandry, Gujarat at doah.gujarat.gov.in for the departmental scheme list.
• iKhedut portal at ikhedut.gujarat.gov.in for the window dates, application status and portal problems.

What this guide does not state, and why

The exact quantity of concentrate feed supplied under the General Category pregnant-animal component, the unit cost and the annual district targets are not published on an official public source at the time of writing. A related component of the same programme, for the post-parturition period, is described as supplying 150 kg of BIS Type II feed, but that figure belongs to a different component and is not carried over here. Ask the taluka animal husbandry office for the current year's quantity, since these parameters are re-notified each financial year.