Goat Rearing Scheme (Development Support Agency of Gujarat)

What is the Goat Rearing Scheme?

Goat Rearing Scheme is a livelihood programme of the Development Support Agency of Gujarat, usually written as D-SAG, which works under the Tribal Development Department of the Government of Gujarat. D-SAG is the agency the state uses to run tribal livelihood projects in the eastern tribal belt that runs from Banaskantha and Sabarkantha in the north through Dahod, Panchmahal and Chhota Udepur to Narmada, Tapi, Dang and Valsad in the south.

According to the D-SAG project page, the agency implements the goat rearing scheme with the aim of increasing the income of the tribal herdsmen in the tribal areas of the state and raising their standard of living. The scheme is aimed at hilly regions where fodder and rainfall are limited: exactly the conditions in which goats outperform larger livestock, because they browse on shrub and tree fodder rather than needing cultivated feed, and they need far less water than cattle or buffalo.

The benefit is Rs 45,000 per beneficiary to establish a unit of 10 goats and 1 buck. That composition is not arbitrary. Ten does provide the milk and the kid crop, while a single unrelated male goat, the buck, makes the flock self-reproducing. A unit given without a buck has to depend on borrowed service males and usually fails to build a herd.

Key features

• Rs 45,000 assistance per beneficiary.
• Unit of 10 goats plus 1 buck.
• Restricted to tribal women of legal age.
• Available once in a lifetime per beneficiary.
• Applications through ikhedut.gujarat.gov.in.
• Implemented through the office of the District Administrator.

Who is eligible for the Goat Rearing Scheme?

You can apply if:

• You are a woman. The D-SAG scheme page restricts the benefit to women beneficiaries.
• You belong to a Scheduled Tribe and can produce a caste certificate from the competent revenue authority.
• You are of legal age, that is 18 years or above.
• You live in the tribal areas of Gujarat covered by D-SAG's mandate.
• You have a bank account in your own name for the direct transfer.
• You have not already taken this benefit. The scheme page states the benefit is available only once in a lifetime.

You are not eligible and cannot apply if:

• You are a man. The scheme is a women-only tribal livelihood measure.
• You do not hold a Scheduled Tribe certificate. Without it the application cannot be verified.
• You are below the legal age.
• You have already received this assistance in a previous year.
• The bank account is not in your own name, since the assistance is credited to the beneficiary directly.

Practical experience in these components also matters. Applicants who already keep a few goats, or whose household has grazing access and a shed, get more out of a unit than a household starting from nothing, and district staff often look for that capacity while verifying.

How much assistance is given?

Rs 45,000 is the assistance stated on the D-SAG project page for the goat rearing scheme, provided per beneficiary for a 10 goats plus 1 buck unit. It is a one-time payment.

Readers should be aware of a parallel, similarly named scheme so they apply to the right one. The Government of Gujarat also offers a goat unit subsidy of 10 plus 1 for Scheduled Tribe women through the animal husbandry components on the same i-Khedut portal, described as 50 percent of the unit cost up to Rs 45,000, with priority to widowed and divorced Scheduled Tribe women and a limit of one beneficiary per family. The two run through different administrative channels: D-SAG under the Tribal Development Department, and the animal husbandry component under the Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Co-operation Department. Before you apply, open the i-Khedut portal and read which component is currently accepting applications in your district.

What documents are required?

Keep the spelling of your name identical across the Aadhaar card, the caste certificate and the bank passbook. A mismatch between these three is the most common reason an i-Khedut application is returned at the verification stage.

How to apply for the Goat Rearing Scheme

1. Collect the five documents listed above — photograph, caste certificate, bank passbook copy, Aadhaar copy and ration card copy, and scan them.
2. Open ikhedut.gujarat.gov.in, the Government of Gujarat's i-Khedut portal, and go to the scheme application section. The D-SAG page directs applicants to this portal for online application.
3. Check whether the goat rearing component is open for your district. The portal opens components in windows rather than keeping every scheme live all year, and an application cannot be filed while the component is closed.
4. Fill the online application with your personal details, Aadhaar number, caste certificate details, village and taluka, and bank account number with IFSC code.
5. Upload the scanned documents in the formats and sizes the portal specifies.
6. Submit the application and print the confirmation. i-Khedut requires the printed application to be confirmed; note the application number carefully.
7. Submit the printed application with self-attested documents to the office named on the confirmation, normally the taluka or district level implementing office, since the scheme is implemented through the office of the District Administrator.

How to check your application status

1. Return to ikhedut.gujarat.gov.in and use the application status option.
2. Enter your application number and the registered mobile number or Aadhaar number as prompted.
3. The portal shows whether the application is submitted, confirmed, under verification, approved or rejected.
4. For anything the portal does not explain, contact the office of the District Administrator or the D-SAG office in Gandhinagar on 079-23252257.

Why applications get rejected

• Component closed. Applying outside the open window on i-Khedut, or in a district where the target for the year is already filled.
• Caste certificate missing or expired, or issued by an authority that is not competent for Scheduled Tribe certification.
• Name mismatch across Aadhaar, caste certificate and bank passbook.
• Bank account in someone else's name, typically a husband's or a son's. The account must belong to the woman beneficiary.
• Repeat application by a beneficiary who has already taken the once in a lifetime benefit.
• Printed application never submitted after online filing. An online submission alone is often not enough on i-Khedut.
• Target exhausted. Physical targets for livestock components are limited and district-wise, so an eligible application can still be held over to the next year.

When does the application window open?

Goat Rearing Scheme does not publish a fixed annual last date. i-Khedut opens component-wise application windows through the year, so the practical approach is to keep the caste certificate, Aadhaar and bank passbook ready and check the portal periodically, particularly around the start of the financial year when new targets are released. The district implementing office can tell you when the livestock components for your district are expected to open.

Where to get help

• Development Support Agency of Gujarat (D-SAG), Birsa Munda Bhavan, 3rd Floor, Sector 10-A, Gandhinagar. Phone 079-23252257.
• Office of the District Administrator in your district, which implements the scheme on the ground.
• Tribal Development Department, Gujarat at tribal.gujarat.gov.in, for the wider set of tribal livelihood and Vanbandhu schemes.
• i-Khedut portal at ikhedut.gujarat.gov.in for application status and open components.

Applying is free. No fee is payable to any officer or agent for filing a goat rearing application, and the assistance is credited directly to the beneficiary's own bank account.