Contribution to State Agriculture Marketing Board Development Fund (General)

What is the Contribution to State Agriculture Marketing Board Development Fund?

Contribution to State Agriculture Marketing Board Development Fund (General) is a Gujarat state scheme of the Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Co-operation Department. Under it the State Government pays money into the Development Fund maintained by the Gujarat State Agricultural Marketing Board, and the size of that payment is tied to what the Market Committees themselves have deposited.

According to the scheme description published by the Government of Gujarat, the State Government contributes not less than 5 per cent of the total deposits made by Market Committees into the Development Fund. The contribution is, in other words, a matching mechanism: the more the Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMCs) place in deposit, the larger the state's statutory addition to the fund that finances their infrastructure.

Readers should be clear about what kind of scheme this is. Contribution to State Agriculture Marketing Board Development Fund is not an individual benefit. No farmer, trader, commission agent or labourer receives money under it. It is a public finance instrument that keeps a corpus available for building and upgrading the physical marketing infrastructure that farmers then use.

Why does Gujarat run a marketing Development Fund?

Gujarat regulates the primary sale of agricultural produce through Agricultural Produce Market Committees constituted under the Gujarat Agricultural Produce Markets Act, 1963. Each APMC runs a market yard where farmers bring produce for open auction. The state-level coordinating body for these committees is the Gujarat State Agricultural Marketing Board, which sits under the Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Co-operation Department.

Market yards need continuous capital spending — auction platforms, covered sheds, godowns and cold storage, grading and weighing equipment, electronic weighbridges, internal roads and drainage, farmer rest houses, sanitation, and increasingly the hardware needed to connect a yard to electronic trading. Market Committees generate income from market fees, but individual committees vary enormously in what they can afford: a large yard in Unjha or Rajkot has a very different revenue base from a small taluka yard in a tribal district.

A pooled Development Fund, topped up by a statutory state contribution, is the mechanism Gujarat uses to even this out. The fund allows the Board to support works at committees that cannot finance them from their own market fee income.

Who is eligible and who is not eligible?

Eligible:

• Agricultural Produce Market Committees constituted in Gujarat, whose deposits form the basis on which the 5 per cent contribution is computed.
• Registered cooperative institutions in Gujarat connected with agricultural marketing, as identified in the scheme's own eligibility description.
• The Gujarat State Agricultural Marketing Board, as the body that maintains and operates the Development Fund.

Not eligible:

• Individual farmers. Contribution to State Agriculture Marketing Board Development Fund carries no personal subsidy, pension, input assistance or cash transfer. A farmer looking for individual support should look instead at the Department's farm mechanisation, horticulture or crop insurance schemes.
• Traders, commission agents and market labourers in their personal capacity.
• Private companies, proprietorships and partnership firms that are not registered cooperative institutions.
• Institutions outside Gujarat, since the fund is confined to the state's own regulated market system.
• Unregistered farmer groups that have not been registered as cooperative institutions.

How to apply for the Development Fund contribution

The scheme is administered offline. There is no online application form on any Gujarat portal for this particular head.

1. Pass a resolution in the managing committee of the cooperative institution or Market Committee, authorising the claim and naming the person who will sign the application.
2. Prepare the application on plain paper, addressed to the District Registrar, setting out the name and registration number of the institution, the purpose of the claim, and the deposit figures on which the contribution is to be worked out.
3. Attach self-attested copies of the registration certificate, the record of deposits made by the Market Committee, the bank account details of the institution and, where asked for, the latest audited accounts.
4. Submit the file at the office of the District Registrar and insist on a dated inward receipt or acknowledgement. That receipt number is what you will quote at every later follow-up.
5. Follow up with the District Registrar and the Directorate of Agricultural Marketing and Rural Finance, since the proposal moves from the district to the state level before the contribution is released to the Board's fund.

How can an institution check the status?

No status-tracking portal exists for this scheme. Follow the file in the order it travels:

• The District Registrar's office, which holds the inward receipt.
• The Directorate of Agricultural Marketing and Rural Finance under the Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Co-operation Department.
• The Gujarat State Agricultural Marketing Board, which operates the Development Fund once the contribution is credited.

Because the contribution is fixed through the annual state budget, the practical answer to "when will it be released" is usually "in the financial year for which the deposits were reported".

What are the common reasons an application fails?

• The applicant is not a registered cooperative institution or Market Committee. This scheme has a narrow class of applicants and an application from any other body is returned.
• No deposit record attached. The contribution is computed as a percentage of Market Committee deposits, so a claim without deposit figures cannot be assessed at all.
• Registration certificate not current, or the institution's registration has lapsed.
• No managing committee resolution, so the signatory's authority cannot be established.
• Bank details in an individual's name rather than the institution's, which blocks release of funds.
• Application filed as a request for individual assistance, which is outside the scheme entirely.

Key facts at a glance

Where to raise a grievance

• District Registrar of Co-operative Societies in your district, for a proposal that has not moved.
• Directorate of Agricultural Marketing and Rural Finance, Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Co-operation Department, Gandhinagar.
• Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Co-operation Department, Sachivalaya, Gandhinagar, for policy-level questions on the contribution.

No fee is charged for filing this application, and no agent is needed. If anyone offers to secure a "farmer grant" under this scheme, treat it as a fraud, because the scheme has no individual component at all.