Chief Minister Agriculture and Food Processing Scheme

What is the Chief Minister Agriculture and Food Processing Scheme?

Chief Minister Agriculture and Food Processing Scheme, known in Marathi as Mukhyamantri Krishi va Anna Prakriya Yojana, is a capital subsidy scheme of the Agriculture Department, Government of Maharashtra. The scheme has been running since 2017-18 and has been extended through 2026-27.

Chief Minister Agriculture and Food Processing Scheme addresses a specific weakness in Maharashtra's farm economy: the state grows large volumes of fruit, vegetables, pulses and oilseeds but processes a small share of them, so value that could stay in rural districts leaves with the raw produce. The scheme therefore subsidises the hardware of processing: plant, machinery and the technical civil work that houses it, rather than trading or working capital.

Stated objectives

• Encourage modern, technology-based agro and food processing projects.
• Improve the quality and shelf life of agricultural produce.
• Increase exports of processed agricultural products from Maharashtra.
• Create skilled manpower and rural employment through small and medium units.
• Reduce post-harvest loss by building processing capacity closer to the farm.

The financial structure

• Subsidy rate: 30 per cent of the eligible cost.
• Ceiling: Rs 50 lakh per applicant.
• Cost composition: 60 per cent reckoned against plant and machinery, 40 per cent against technical civil work.
• Nature: credit-linked, back-ended, released in two equal instalments.

For the 2024-25 financial year the state budgeted Rs 75 crore for the scheme, and about Rs 31.97 crore had been disbursed against it as reported in state coverage of the programme: figures that give a realistic sense of the annual scale, and of why filing early in the year matters.

Who is eligible for the Chief Minister Agriculture and Food Processing Scheme?

Individual applicants who can apply:

• Entrepreneurs setting up an agro or food processing unit in Maharashtra.
• Progressive farmers processing their own or their neighbours' produce.
• Unemployed youth and women entrepreneurs.
• Startups, proprietorships, partnership firms and LLPs.

Group applicants who can apply:

• Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs) and Farmer Producer Groups.
• Self Help Groups (SHGs).
• Cooperative societies, including agricultural processing cooperatives.
• Government and private institutions running eligible processing activity.

Project conditions:

• The unit must be located in Maharashtra and process agricultural, horticultural, dairy or allied produce.
• A bank term loan must be sanctioned, the subsidy is credit-linked and cannot be claimed on a self-funded project.
• The proposal must clear a pre-project feasibility study and be recommended by the District Project Implementation Committee.

You cannot apply if:

• You have no bank loan sanction. A fully self-financed project is not eligible, because the subsidy is structured as a back-ended adjustment against a term loan.
• Another member of your family has already taken the benefit, since the scheme allows one benefit per family as defined in the government resolution.
• You have already drawn assistance under this scheme once, a second claim by the same applicant is not allowed.
• You are claiming for the same asset already subsidised under another central or state scheme, such as PMFME or MOFPI programmes. Upgrading a unit earlier funded elsewhere is allowed, but double-claiming the same machinery is not.
• Your project is only trading, storage without processing, or land purchase. Land cost and non-technical construction are excluded from the eligible cost.
• The unit is outside Maharashtra.

An important clarification: this is an enterprise scheme, not a personal welfare benefit. An individual cannot receive money simply for being a farmer. There must be a real processing project, a real bank loan and a real unit that starts production.

Which activities are covered?

Chief Minister Agriculture and Food Processing Scheme covers processing across the farm value chain, including:

• Cereals and pulses, dal mills, flour mills, rice processing, ready-to-cook products.
• Fruits and vegetables, pulping, drying, freezing, juice and pickle lines, ripening chambers.
• Oilseeds, expeller and refining units.
• Spices: cleaning, grading, grinding and packing.
• Medicinal and aromatic plants — extraction and processing.
• Dairy, milk processing and dairy product manufacture.
• Wine and other permitted fruit-based beverages.
• Animal feed manufacture.
• Cold chain infrastructure; cold storage, pre-cooling, reefer handling.
• Integrated value-chain projects linking collection, processing and marketing.

What documents are required?

How to apply for the Chief Minister Agriculture and Food Processing Scheme

1. Prepare a Detailed Project Report covering machinery, technical civil work, raw material sourcing, market plan, employment and financial projections. Keep the 60:40 machinery-to-civil-work split in mind, because that is how the eligible cost is reckoned.
2. Obtain a term loan sanction from a bank or financial institution for the project. Without this the proposal cannot proceed.
3. Submit the proposal to the District Superintending Agriculture Officer of the district where the unit will be located, with the DPR, loan sanction letter, land documents, quotations and entity papers.
4. Undergo the pre-project feasibility study conducted by the department, which checks technical soundness, raw material availability and viability.
5. Obtain the recommendation of the District Project Implementation Committee, which scrutinises and clears eligible proposals against the district allocation.
6. Build the unit and start production; install machinery, complete the technical civil work and commence commercial operation.
7. File the subsidy claim with completion documents, machinery bills, and the lender's certificate of loan disbursal and utilisation.
8. Receive the subsidy in two equal instalments, credited to the reserve fund account with your lender and adjusted against your term loan after inspection of the completed unit.

How much money will I actually receive?

Chief Minister Agriculture and Food Processing Scheme pays 30 per cent of the eligible cost, up to Rs 50 lakh. Eligible cost is calculated on plant and machinery plus technical civil work only.

Worked examples:

Any project with an eligible cost above roughly Rs 1.67 crore hits the Rs 50 lakh ceiling, so the effective subsidy percentage falls as the project grows. Note also that land purchase, administrative offices and non-technical construction are excluded from the eligible cost, which is where applicants most often overestimate their entitlement.

Because the subsidy is back-ended, you must fund the full project through your own contribution plus the bank loan first. The subsidy reduces your outstanding loan later; it is not cash in hand at the start.

How to check your application status

1. Contact the District Superintending Agriculture Officer's office where the proposal was filed, quoting the inward number given on submission.
2. Ask for the stage; feasibility study done, District Project Implementation Committee recommendation, sanction issued, first instalment released, or second instalment released.
3. Confirm with your lending bank whether the subsidy has been credited to the reserve fund account against your loan, since the money reaches you through the bank and not directly.
4. For unresolved delays, escalate to the Divisional Joint Director of Agriculture or lodge a ticket on grievances.maharashtra.gov.in.

Why proposals get rejected

• No bank loan sanction, making the credit-linked structure impossible.
• Weak or generic DPR that fails the pre-project feasibility study.
• Land title or lease not clear for the proposed site.
• Ineligible cost heads claimed: land purchase, boundary walls, offices and other non-technical civil work.
• Duplicate benefit for the same machinery under another central or state scheme.
• Second claim by the same applicant or family.
• Missing statutory clearances such as FSSAI or pollution board consent at the sanction stage.
• Annual allocation exhausted for the district, in which case the proposal waits for the next financial year.

Key dates and current status

Chief Minister Agriculture and Food Processing Scheme has been in operation since 2017-18 and has been extended through 2026-27. Proposals are accepted through the financial year rather than in a single window, but the annual state budget allocation is finite, Rs 75 crore in 2024-25, so a proposal filed early in the year has a materially better chance of being sanctioned within that year.

Help and grievance redressal

• Maharashtra CM Helpline: 1800 120 8040, toll free
• District Superintending Agriculture Officer, the primary office for this scheme
• Taluka Agriculture Officer / Sub-divisional Agriculture Officer for the current application format and checklist
• Agriculture Department portal: krishi.maharashtra.gov.in for government resolutions and scheme guidelines
• MAITRI portal: maitri.maharashtra.gov.in for the wider agro and food processing incentive framework
• State grievance portal: grievances.maharashtra.gov.in

There is no application fee for the scheme. Any consultant you engage is helping you write a project report, not buying you a sanction, and neither the department nor the bank charges for processing the subsidy claim itself.