Assistance Program for the Cultivation of Lotus Fruit (Dragon Fruit)

What is the Assistance Program for the Cultivation of Lotus Fruit (Dragon Fruit)?

Assistance Program for the Cultivation of Lotus Fruit (Dragon Fruit) is a horticulture scheme of the Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Co-operation Department, Government of Gujarat, run through the Directorate of Horticulture and delivered on the i-Khedut portal. Gujarat renamed dragon fruit kamalam in 2021, and the scheme's official English title uses "lotus fruit" for the same crop, a farmer searching for kamalam sahay, dragon fruit subsidy or lotus fruit assistance is looking at this single scheme.

Dragon fruit is unusually capital-hungry at establishment. Each plant has to climb a cement pole with a head ring at the top, and a hectare planted at the standard spacing needs over a thousand poles before a single fruit is picked. That is precisely why Gujarat set the assistance so high relative to other fruit crops.

According to the scheme guideline carried on myScheme and sourced from the Gujarat Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Cooperation Department, the assistance is:

• General category: 50% assistance or up to Rs 3,00,000 per hectare, whichever is less.
• SC and ST category: 75% assistance or up to Rs 4,50,000 per hectare, whichever is less.

The money is released over two years, against a notified unit cost:

The structure tells you two things a farmer should plan for. First, the state expects roughly Rs 6 lakh of gross investment per hectare before the orchard is trellised. Second, half of that has to come from the farmer at the general rate, and it has to be spent before the subsidy is reimbursed.

Who is eligible for the dragon fruit cultivation assistance?

You can claim assistance if:

• You are a farmer and a resident of Gujarat.
• Your holding for this claim is between 0.20 hectare and 1 hectare.
• You procure quality planting material from a nursery and actually establish the plantation.
• You are registered on i-Khedut with an Aadhaar-linked mobile number and hold a bank account in your own name.

Preference goes to small-scale farmers and women farmers where applications exceed the district's sanctioned target.

You cannot apply, or are not eligible, if:

• Your holding for the claim is below 0.20 hectare or above 1 hectare. This area band is a stated condition, unlike most Gujarat horticulture components which only set an upper cap.
• Your name is not on the 7/12 record for the plot. Tenants and share-croppers without recorded land cannot apply in their own name.
• You live or farm outside Gujarat.
• You claim the 75% SC/ST rate without a valid caste certificate from the competent authority.
• You have already drawn this assistance on the same survey number.
• You apply outside the announced i-Khedut window.

No family income ceiling is published for this scheme, and no age limit applies.

What documents are required?

How to apply for the dragon fruit scheme on i-Khedut

1. Open ikhedut.gujarat.gov.in and complete Beneficiary Registration. The OTP goes only to the mobile number linked to your Aadhaar, so update that first if it is stale.
2. Go to Schemes, choose the Horticulture (Bagayat) group, and select the dragon fruit / kamalam cultivation component.
3. Click Apply, then Apply New, and enter village, survey number, area in hectares; within the 0.20 to 1 hectare band, and your category, general or SC/ST.
4. Upload the 7/12 and 8-A extract, Aadhaar, bank passbook and, for the higher rate, the caste certificate. Use Update Application to fix errors.
5. Confirm the application, then print the confirmed copy. An unconfirmed application is not submitted.
6. Wait for pre-sanction before you buy poles and plants. Establish the plantation, keep every bill, and present them at field verification by the Horticulture Officer, who counts poles and plants.
7. Claim the second-year component after the head ring and trellising wire are installed, and let the officer verify again.
8. Track everything under Applicant Corner at ikhedut.gujarat.gov.in/public/frm_Applicant_Corner.aspx.

How do I apply offline?

There is no paper-only route. Take your Aadhaar card, the Aadhaar-linked mobile phone, the 7/12 and 8-A extract, the bank passbook and any caste certificate to the Gram Panchayat e-Gram centre or the Taluka Horticulture office, and have the operator file the i-Khedut application for you. Application on i-Khedut is free; only the small notified data-entry fee is payable at an e-Gram centre.

When can I apply and when is the money paid?

i-Khedut opens horticulture components in windows announced on the portal, timed around the planting season, rather than keeping the counter open all year. Districts work against a sanctioned target, and dragon fruit is a high-value component with a limited number of sanctioned hectares, so windows close quickly.

Payment sequence: confirm application, document scrutiny, pre-sanction, purchase and plantation, field verification, bill verification, then DBT credit of the year-one amount. The year-two amount follows a separate claim and a separate verification once the trellising is up. A farmer who installs poles before receiving pre-sanction takes the risk that the claim is later rejected for target exhaustion.

Why do dragon fruit applications get rejected, and how do I fix it?

• Area outside the 0.20-1 hectare band. Check the 8-A before applying; this is the condition unique to this scheme and the one most often missed.
• Application saved but not confirmed on i-Khedut.
• Pole or plant count short at verification. The unit cost assumes 1,111 poles and 4,444 plants per hectare, pro-rated for smaller plots. A thinner planting reduces or voids the claim.
• Caste certificate missing while claiming the 75% rate. The claim is then reassessed at the 50% general rate, if it survives at all.
• Bills from an unrecognised nursery, or bills in a name other than the applicant's.
• Name mismatch between the 7/12 record, Aadhaar and bank account, which holds up the DBT credit after sanction.
• District target exhausted. Re-apply in the next window.

Where do I complain if the subsidy is delayed?

Take it up in order with the Taluka Horticulture / Agriculture Officer, the District Horticulture Officer at the district panchayat, and then the Directorate of Horticulture, whose head office, regional district office and Centre of Excellence contacts are published under the Contact menu at doh.gujarat.gov.in. The Directorate reports to the Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Co-operation Department at agri.gujarat.gov.in.

Quote your i-Khedut application number every time. This guide does not print a helpline number because no toll-free helpline dedicated to the dragon fruit component is published on Gujarat's official portals; the district office contacts on the Directorate site are the verified route.