Farm Storage Structure Scheme

What is the Farm Storage Structure Scheme?

Farm Storage Structure Scheme is a state scheme of the Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Co-operation Department, Government of Gujarat, run through the Directorate of Agriculture and applied for on the department's single-window portal, iKhedut. The scheme pays part of the cost of building a crop storage structure on the farmer's own land, so that harvested produce can be kept safely instead of lying in the open or being sold immediately at whatever the market is paying that week.

Farm Storage Structure Scheme gives 50 per cent of the total construction cost or Rs 75,000, whichever is less, as a one-time benefit. The money is credited to the farmer's bank account by Direct Benefit Transfer after the structure has been built to the government's prescribed specification and verified.

Why the scheme exists

The economics of a small farm are ruined twice in the same fortnight. First, harvested grain, groundnut or cotton sitting under a tarpaulin is exposed to unseasonal rain, storms, rodents and rising moisture, and a single shower can force a distress sale of a damp lot. Second, every farmer in the taluka harvests at the same time, so the mandi is flooded and the rate is at its annual low exactly when a farmer without storage has to sell. An on-farm storage structure breaks both traps: it protects the crop physically, and it buys the farmer the option of waiting for the rate to recover.

Main features

• 50 per cent of the construction cost, capped at Rs 75,000.
• One-time benefit per beneficiary, not repeatable.
• Restricted to land-holding farmers, anchored to the 8-A holding record.
• Where an 8-A record is jointly held, only one holder may claim, with the written consent of the others.
• Paid by Direct Benefit Transfer after construction, not as an advance.
• Applied for only on iKhedut, ikhedut.gujarat.gov.in.
• Structure must be built to the government's prescribed specification and is physically verified before payment.

Who is eligible for the Farm Storage Structure Scheme?

A farmer can apply if all of the following are true:

• The applicant is a permanent resident of Gujarat, evidenced by a domicile certificate.
• The applicant is a land-holding farmer whose name appears in the 8-A holding record and the 7/12 record for the survey number where the structure will stand.
• The applicant intends to build the storage structure to the specification prescribed by the department, since payment follows verification against that specification.
• Where the 8-A record is jointly held, the applicant has the written consent of the other holders, because only one holder per 8-A record may take the benefit.
• The applicant has an Aadhaar number and a bank account in the same name capable of receiving Direct Benefit Transfer.
• The applicant has not previously claimed this benefit.

Who cannot apply or is not eligible

• Tenant farmers, sharecroppers and agricultural labourers cannot apply. The scheme is keyed to the 8-A holding record, and a cultivator with no recorded interest in the land has nothing to attach the claim to.
• Residents of other states cannot apply, even where they own land in Gujarat but live elsewhere without a Gujarat domicile.
• More than one holder of the same 8-A record cannot claim. The second and subsequent applications against the same holding are rejected.
• A farmer who has already taken this benefit once is not eligible for a second structure.
• Applications filed outside an announced iKhedut window are not eligible, because the component does not appear on the portal menu when the window is closed.
• A structure not built to the prescribed specification will not be sanctioned at verification, even though the application itself was accepted.

Note what is not a bar. There is no published income limit, no age limit and no minimum holding size for this component. A small farmer with half a hectare is as eligible as one with ten, though the benefit remains capped at Rs 75,000 either way.

How much benefit does the scheme provide?

The subsidy released is the lower of the two figures, so the arithmetic runs like this:

• Structure costing Rs 1,50,000 → 50 per cent is Rs 75,000 → farmer receives the ceiling, Rs 75,000.
• Structure costing Rs 1,00,000 → 50 per cent is Rs 50,000 → farmer receives Rs 50,000.
• Structure costing Rs 60,000 → 50 per cent is Rs 30,000 → farmer receives Rs 30,000.

Spending more than Rs 1,50,000 does not increase the grant. Every rupee above that point is the farmer's own money, which is worth knowing before finalising a design with a contractor.

Payment is a single transfer made after construction and physical verification. There is no instalment schedule and no annual renewal.

What documents are required?

The joint holder consent is the document most often missing. Gujarat 8-A records are frequently held by several brothers or by a father and sons together, and the Taluka Agriculture Office will not release a claim until the other recorded holders have signed away their turn in writing. Arrange that before the application window opens, not during it.

How to apply for the Farm Storage Structure Scheme

1. Open the official portal at ikhedut.gujarat.gov.in and go to Schemes, then Agricultural Schemes (Khetivadi).
2. Check whether the Farm Storage Structure component shows as open. A closed component accepts no applications, and there is no late submission facility.
3. Click Apply against the component, then state whether you are a registered applicant. A first-time user chooses "not registered" and completes a fresh registration using an Aadhaar number and a mobile number for OTP verification.
4. Fill the application form with your personal details, village, taluka and district, survey number, 8-A details, the proposed structure and its estimated cost, and your bank account number with IFSC.
5. Use Update Application to correct anything, then submit the form and note the application number shown on screen.
6. Confirm the application. iKhedut treats submission and confirmation as two separate steps, and an unconfirmed application is never forwarded to the Taluka Agriculture Office.
7. Print the confirmed application, sign it, affix the photograph, attach self-attested copies of the 7/12 and 8-A, Aadhaar card, bank passbook, domicile certificate and joint holder consent where needed, and submit the set to your Taluka Agriculture Office.
8. Wait for the sanction order, then build the structure to the prescribed specification, submit the signed completion documents and construction bills to the local office, and request physical verification so the subsidy can be credited.

How to apply with assistance offline

1. Visit a Village Computer Entrepreneur (VCE) at your Gram Panchayat, a Common Service Centre, or the Taluka Agriculture Office with your Aadhaar card, 7/12 and 8-A records, bank passbook and domicile certificate. iKhedut has no paper-first route: every application must be entered online by someone.
2. Have the operator fill and confirm the application in your presence, and collect the printout carrying the application number before you leave.
3. Submit the signed printout with attachments at the Taluka Agriculture Office and take a stamped receiving acknowledgement with a date on it.

How do I check my application status?

1. Go to ikhedut.gujarat.gov.in and open the Applicant Corner.
2. Select Check application status.
3. Enter the application number and the mobile number you registered with the application.
4. Use the same corner to reprint the application or upload pending documents.

An application stuck at "submitted" was never confirmed and will not move. The only remedy is to file again in the next open window.

Why do Farm Storage Structure applications get rejected?

• Application not confirmed on iKhedut after submission.
• Hard copy not submitted to the Taluka Agriculture Office within the days allowed.
• Joint holder consent missing where the 8-A record has more than one holder.
• Another holder of the same 8-A has already taken the benefit.
• Structure not built to the prescribed specification, discovered at physical verification.
• Construction started before the sanction order, which puts the claim at risk because the department cannot confirm the work was done under the scheme.
• Name mismatch between the 7/12 or 8-A record, the Aadhaar card and the bank account, which stops the transfer even after sanction.
• Repeat claim by a farmer who has already taken the one-time benefit.
• Component budget exhausted for the financial year, which produces a rejection unrelated to the applicant's merits.

Key dates and the application window

Farm Storage Structure Scheme is not open every day of the year. The Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Co-operation Department opens the component on iKhedut once the annual allocation is released and closes it when the district target is filled, so a window can open and shut inside a few weeks. Watch the news and circulars section of ikhedut.gujarat.gov.in. Getting the domicile certificate and the joint holder consent arranged in advance is the single most useful thing a farmer can do, because those are the slow documents and the window is short.

Where do I raise a grievance?

• Taluka Agriculture Office — the first stop, because the physical file and the verification both sit there.
• District Agriculture Officer for delays and for budget-related deferrals.
• iKhedut public contacts page on the portal, which lists the correct officer for each district and taluka.
• Directorate of Agriculture, Gujarat, Krishi Bhavan, Sector 10-A, Gandhinagar, for state-level escalation.
• iKhedut helpdesk for technical faults such as a form that will not confirm or an OTP that does not arrive.

Applying on iKhedut is free. No agent can guarantee sanction of a storage structure subsidy, no officer is entitled to a payment for processing the file, and nobody from the department will ask you for your bank OTP.