Bihar Rajya Fasal Sahayata Yojana

What is Bihar Rajya Fasal Sahayata Yojana?

Bihar Rajya Fasal Sahayata Yojana is the state's own crop assistance scheme, run by the Cooperative Department, Government of Bihar. Bihar introduced it after withdrawing from the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, and the design difference is deliberate: this is not insurance. Farmers pay no premium, there is no insurance company in the middle, and the state pays assistance directly from its own budget through Direct Benefit Transfer.

According to the Cooperative Department, the scheme pays Rs 7,500 per hectare where the actual yield of a notified crop in a panchayat falls up to 20 percent below the threshold yield, and Rs 10,000 per hectare where the shortfall is more than 20 percent. Both rates apply to a maximum of 2 hectares of the registered area, so the highest assistance in a single season is Rs 20,000.

The scheme is often written locally as Bihar Rajya Fasal Sahayata Yojna and is referred to by farmers simply as fasal sahayata. The Cooperative Department's eSahkari portal reported over 9.5 lakh applications in a single recent Kharif cycle, split between raiyat, gair-raiyat and mixed applicants, a scale that tells you the registration window is competitive for data-entry slots at PACS counters near the closing date.

Main features

• Zero premium. The farmer contributes nothing at any stage.
• Two flat rates of assistance, Rs 7,500 and Rs 10,000 per hectare.
• Area cap of 2 hectares per applicant per season.
• Assessment is at the panchayat level through crop cutting experiments, not by a surveyor visiting your individual plot.
• Both land-owning and tenant farmers are covered.
• Payment is by DBT to an Aadhaar-seeded bank account.

Who is eligible for Bihar Rajya Fasal Sahayata Yojana?

You can register if:

• You are a permanent resident of Bihar and cultivate land in the state.
• You are a raiyat farmer who owns the land you cultivate, and can produce a land possession certificate or an updated rent receipt.
• Or you are a gair-raiyat farmer, a tenant, bataidar or sharecropper who cultivates land belonging to somebody else, and can file a self-declaration of cultivation countersigned by the ward member or a panchayat representative.
• Or you fall in both categories, cultivating your own land plus rented land. The portal has a specific option for this, and it is the largest single category in recent Kharif data.
• You are growing a crop notified for your district in that season.
• You hold an Aadhaar-seeded, active bank account.

You are not eligible and cannot apply if:

• The crop you have sown is not on the notified list for your district and season. A notified list is published before every window.
• You missed the registration window for that season. There is no retrospective registration after crop damage has occurred. The whole design requires registration at or before sowing.
• You are claiming for land outside Bihar.
• The same land and the same crop have already been registered by another applicant for that season. Duplicate registrations on one plot are flagged and rejected.
• Your bank account is not Aadhaar-seeded or is dormant; the application may be accepted but payment will fail.

There is no income ceiling, no caste restriction and no age bar. A farmer cultivating half a bigha and one cultivating five hectares can both register. The second is simply paid on 2 hectares.

How is the assistance amount decided?

Bihar Rajya Fasal Sahayata Yojana works on a panchayat-level yield comparison, which is the single point most applicants misunderstand.

1. The Cooperative Department fixes a threshold yield for each notified crop in each panchayat, based on past average production.
2. After harvest, crop cutting experiments are conducted in the panchayat to establish the actual yield for that season.
3. If the actual yield is below the threshold, every registered farmer of that crop in that panchayat is paid. The loss on one particular field is not assessed.
4. The rate depends on the size of the shortfall: Rs 7,500 per hectare for a shortfall of up to 20 percent, Rs 10,000 per hectare where it exceeds 20 percent.
5. The amount is multiplied by your registered area, capped at 2 hectares.

A farmer whose own field was flooded but whose panchayat as a whole produced a normal yield will not receive assistance under this scheme. Conversely, a farmer whose field did reasonably well still receives assistance if the panchayat yield fell. That is the trade-off the state chose in exchange for removing premiums, surveyors and claim paperwork.

What documents are required?

How to apply for Bihar Rajya Fasal Sahayata Yojana online

1. Open the Cooperative Department portal at pacsonline.bih.nic.in and go to the Fasal Sahayata Yojana section for the current season.
2. Complete the DBT registration first if you have never registered, this produces the DBT number that the crop assistance form asks for. Farmers already registered for other Bihar agriculture schemes can reuse it.
3. Select the season — Kharif or Rabi, and choose your applicant type: raiyat, gair-raiyat, or both.
4. Enter your district, block, panchayat and village, then select the notified crop and enter the area sown in hectares for each crop.
5. Enter bank details, confirming the account is Aadhaar-seeded.
6. Upload the land possession certificate if you are a raiyat farmer, or the countersigned self-declaration if you are gair-raiyat. The declaration format is downloadable from the same page.
7. Submit the form and save the application number displayed on screen. Print or photograph the acknowledgement.
8. Wait for verification by the block cooperative officer or the local PACS, who may call you to confirm the cultivation details.

How to apply offline or with help

1. Visit your local Primary Agricultural Credit Society (PACS) office or a Vasudha Kendra / Common Service Centre with Aadhaar, bank passbook, land papers and a photograph.
2. Ask the operator to register you under Fasal Sahayata Yojana for the current season. The submission is still made on the same online portal: there is no paper-only route.
3. Get the countersignature of the ward member on your self-declaration first if you are a gair-raiyat farmer, since the operator cannot proceed without it.
4. Collect the printed acknowledgement carrying the application number before you leave the counter.

How do I check my application and payment status?

1. Open pacsonline.bih.nic.in and select the application status option under the Fasal Sahayata section.
2. Enter your application number or registration number and submit.
3. The screen shows the stage: submitted, under verification, verified, approved, or payment released.
4. Where the status shows a rejection or an objection, the reason is displayed; correct it and resubmit within the season window if it is still open.
5. Payment credit is also notified by SMS to the registered mobile number.

Why do Fasal Sahayata applications get rejected?

• Registration after the window closed. No late applications are accepted.
• Crop not notified for your district that season.
• Self-declaration not countersigned by the ward member or panchayat representative, the commonest gair-raiyat rejection.
• Land already registered by another applicant for the same crop and season.
• Bank account not Aadhaar-seeded, or a name mismatch between Aadhaar and the bank record, which lets the application pass but stops the DBT credit.
• Area overstated beyond what the land record or the verification officer confirms.
• Panchayat yield did not fall below the threshold. This is not a rejection of your paperwork at all, and no assistance is payable that season for anyone in that panchayat for that crop.

Where do I get help?

• Cooperative Department helpline: 1800-345-4110 (toll free) and 0612-2200693.
• Block Cooperative Officer (BCO) for verification and land-record disputes.
• District Cooperative Officer (DCO) where the block level does not resolve the matter.
• PACS secretary in your panchayat for registration help and for the self-declaration format.

Registration is free. Keep your Aadhaar, land papers and bank passbook current before the season window opens, most rejections are paperwork failures that were fixable a week earlier.