Coconut Development Scheme

What is the Coconut Development Scheme?

The Coconut Development Scheme is a horticulture support scheme of the Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Co-operation Department, Government of Gujarat, worked through the Directorate of Horticulture and applied for on the iKhedut portal. The scheme has two purposes stated by the department: to encourage farmers by making quality coconut saplings available at reasonable prices with financial assistance for cultivation, and to promote Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and Integrated Nutrient Management (INM) in coconut gardens.

Coconut is a long-horizon crop. A planted sapling takes years before it bears commercially, and the grower carries the cost of land, water and care through that gap with no return. That waiting period, more than the price of the sapling, is what keeps farmers from planting coconut. The Coconut Development Scheme attacks the establishment cost directly, paying 75 per cent of the notified per-hectare cost of establishing the plantation.

Key features

• State horticulture scheme applied for on iKhedut.
• Rs 37,500 per hectare for coconut cultivation, being 75 per cent of a Rs 50,000 per hectare unit cost.
• Rs 5,000 per hectare for IPM and INM, being 50 per cent of a Rs 10,000 per hectare unit cost.
• All farmers are eligible; no category restriction is published.
• Focus on quality planting material rather than on cash alone.

How much does the Coconut Development Scheme pay?

The two components answer different questions. The cultivation component is about establishing the garden; land preparation, pits, saplings, initial care. The IPM and INM component is about running it well: managing the rhinoceros beetle, red palm weevil and eriophyid mite without leaning entirely on chemical sprays, and feeding the palms through a balanced mix of organic and inorganic nutrients rather than urea alone.

Assistance is worked per hectare, so the amount a farmer actually receives depends on the planted area accepted at verification, not on what was written in the application. A farmer who applies for one hectare and plants seven-tenths of a hectare should expect the assistance to be scaled accordingly.

The department revises unit costs and rates by government resolution from year to year, so read the scheme text displayed against the Coconut Development Scheme on iKhedut in the year you apply.

Who is eligible for the Coconut Development Scheme?

You can apply if:

• You are a farmer in Gujarat. The department's published eligibility line is simply that all farmers are eligible, with no caste, gender or holding-size filter.
• You have a land record in your own name, since the 7/12 certificate is a mandatory document.
• You hold a bank account in your own name for the transfer.
• You intend to plant or maintain coconut on the land in question.

You cannot apply if:

• You have no land record in your name. A tenant cultivator or agricultural labourer without a 7/12 extract in their own name is not eligible, because the document list makes that record compulsory.
• You are not a resident of Gujarat, or the land lies outside the state.
• You are applying outside the notified window, or after the district's annual target has been exhausted.
• Your bank account name does not match the land record and Aadhaar, in which case the application will stall even if everything else is in order.

The absence of a category restriction is worth noticing. Many Gujarat horticulture components are split into general, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe sub-plans with different rates. The Coconut Development Scheme as published does not carry that split, which makes it one of the simpler horticulture components to qualify for.

What documents are required?

Upload clear scans within the file-size limit the portal shows. A blurred 7/12 upload is one of the most frequent reasons a horticulture application is returned for correction, and corrections are only possible before the application is confirmed.

How to apply for the Coconut Development Scheme

1. Open the iKhedut portal at ikhedut.gujarat.gov.in during the application window notified for the financial year.
2. On the home page click Schemes (Yojanao), then Agricultural Schemes.
3. Find the Coconut Development Scheme in the list and click Apply. The application page opens.
4. Click Apply New to file a fresh application, entering your personal details, survey number, area proposed for coconut and bank account details.
5. Use Update Application to correct any field. Corrections are only possible before you confirm.
6. Confirm the application. Confirmation locks it, so check the survey number and the area carefully first.
7. Take a printout of the confirmed application and keep it with photocopies of your 7/12, Aadhaar and bank passbook.
8. Track the application through the Applicant Corner at ikhedut.gujarat.gov.in/public/frm_Applicant_Corner.aspx, where you can also view, print or upload documents.

How to apply if you cannot use the portal

The Coconut Development Scheme has no separate paper route, every application starts on iKhedut. Farmers who cannot file it themselves have three practical options.

1. Use the Village Computer Entrepreneur (VCE) at the gram panchayat e-Gram centre.
2. Use a Common Service Centre or an authorised cyber café and collect the printout.
3. Ask the taluka horticulture or agriculture office for help during the window.

How to check your application status

1. Open ikhedut.gujarat.gov.in and select the Applicant Corner.
2. Enter your application number and registered mobile number.
3. Read whether the application is pending, sanctioned or rejected, and upload anything the office has asked for.
4. If the status does not move for several weeks after the window closes, visit the taluka agriculture office with your printed application.

Land records can be checked independently at anyror.gujarat.gov.in, which is useful when the portal flags a mismatch between the survey number you entered and the revenue record.

Why coconut applications get rejected

• Target exhausted. Horticulture components run against district-wise annual targets on a first-come basis, and a valid late application can be held over.
• Confirmed application not backed by documents at the office when asked for.
• Survey number mismatch between the form and the 7/12 extract.
• Land not in the applicant's name.
• Bank account name mismatch, which stops the transfer at the last step.
• Planted area at verification smaller than claimed, which reduces or disallows the assistance.
• Poor planting material. The scheme exists to put quality saplings in the ground, and a garden raised from doubtful nursery stock invites problems at verification and, more importantly, fails commercially.

Where to get help

• Taluka agriculture or horticulture office — first point of contact for the current window, document objections and status.
• District Horticulture Officer, for escalation and for advice on planting material and spacing.
• Directorate of Horticulture under the Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Co-operation Department (agri.gujarat.gov.in), for scheme resolutions.
• iKhedut Applicant Corner, for portal, login and upload problems.

One piece of agronomic caution belongs in any honest guide to this scheme. Coconut is a coastal, warm-humid crop, grown in Gujarat mainly along the Saurashtra and South Gujarat coast. A subsidy of Rs 37,500 per hectare does not make coconut viable on land with poor drainage, saline irrigation water or a harsh dry season. Talk to the district horticulture staff about site suitability, variety and spacing before you plant, because the subsidy is paid once and the plantation has to live for decades.