National Mission on Edible Oil - Oil Palm: Replanting of Old Oil Palm Garden (Gujarat)

What is the Replanting of Old Oil Palm Garden component?

"Replanting of Old Oil Palm Garden" is a component of the National Mission on Edible Oils – Oil Palm (NMEO-OP), implemented in Gujarat by the Department of Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Co-operation. The component pays a farmer Rs 250 per plant to uproot an oil palm that has outlived its productive life, plant a replacement, and dig the new pit that the replacement needs.

According to the scheme description carried on the national myScheme repository, the target is oil palm gardens that have reached an age of about 25 to 30 years. The stated purpose is to raise oil palm production in Gujarat and cut the country's dependence on imported palm oil, which is exactly the logic behind NMEO-OP as a whole.

Why an old oil palm garden has to be replanted rather than nursed

Oil palm is a long-duration perennial. For the first two decades it yields steadily, but as the trunk grows the bunches move out of comfortable reach and yield per hectare falls. Two problems arrive together at around the 25-to-30-year mark:

• Harvesting cost rises sharply because the bunches sit too high for ordinary poles and chisels, and a mis-timed harvest degrades oil quality.
• Yield per palm falls, so the same land, water and fertiliser produce less fresh fruit bunch tonnage every year.

Replanting resets that cycle, but it is expensive up front. Uprooting a mature palm is heavy mechanical work, and the grower then faces a gestation period before the new palms bear. The Rs 250 per plant grant is designed to cover part of that uprooting-and-repitting cost so the decision to replant is not deferred year after year.

Who is eligible for the oil palm replanting subsidy?

You can claim the subsidy if:

• You are a resident of Gujarat.
• You are a farmer and the land carrying the old oil palm garden is recorded in your name in the 7/12 and 8-A extracts.
• The garden being replanted is an old oil palm garden of the age band the component targets.
• You are registered as a beneficiary on the iKhedut portal with Aadhaar verification done.
• You hold a bank account in your own name to receive the DBT payment.

You are not eligible, and cannot apply, if:

• You hold no land record in your own name for the plot in question.
• Your land lies outside Gujarat, or you are not a resident of the state.
• You are planting a fresh oil palm area rather than replacing an existing old garden; new area expansion is funded under different NMEO-OP components, not this one.
• You have already drawn this one-time grant for the same plants. The assistance is not recurring.

The scheme guideline sets no income ceiling, so a farmer's income level does not affect eligibility. Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and disabled applicants use the same form and attach the relevant certificate.

What documents are required?

Because payment is per plant, the number of palms uprooted and replanted is the figure that decides your final amount. Keep planting-material invoices and any photographs of the operation, since the physical verification team will count what is on the ground.

How to apply for oil palm replanting on iKhedut

1. Go to ikhedut.gujarat.gov.in, click Login at the top right, then Beneficiary Registration, and pick your beneficiary type — Farmer, Institutional, or Except For the Farmer.
2. Choose your District, Taluka and Village, select the account-holder type, enter your bank account number and name, solve the captcha and click Save and Next.
3. Enter your mobile number and email, press Send OTP, enter the OTP received on your Aadhaar-linked mobile, set a password, solve the captcha and Submit.
4. Log in, open Schemes, then Agricultural Schemes, and select the Replanting of Old Oil Palm Garden component.
5. Click Apply, then Apply New, and fill the form with your survey number, garden area, age of the garden and the number of plants you intend to uproot and replace.
6. Use Update Application to fix any error, then confirm the application. An unconfirmed form is not in the queue.
7. Print the confirmed application and keep it ready for the field inspection.

How to apply without internet access

1. Take your Aadhaar card, 7/12 and 8-A extracts and bank passbook to a Common Service Centre or the village VCE centre.
2. Ask the operator to complete your iKhedut beneficiary registration, then the replanting application.
3. Collect the printed confirmed application before leaving.

Your Taluka Agriculture Officer and the District Horticulture Officer can tell you whether the window is currently open and what the district's target for the year is.

How do I check my application and payment status?

1. Log in to ikhedut.gujarat.gov.in with your registered mobile number.
2. Open your application list and find the confirmed application for the replanting component.
3. Track it through the stages: submitted, verified at taluka level, physically inspected, sanctioned, and paid.
4. On sanction, the amount is credited by Direct Benefit Transfer to the bank account you registered.

Because the payment is per plant, the sanctioned figure may differ from what you claimed if the inspection counts fewer plants than the application declared.

Why applications get rejected, and how to avoid it

• Land not in the applicant's name. Complete the mutation in the revenue record before filing.
• Garden does not meet the age condition. A relatively young garden is not a replanting case.
• Plant count declared but not executed. The subsidy follows the verified count on the ground, not the number on the form.
• Application filled but never confirmed. Press confirm and take the printout.
• Bank details mismatched with the land record or Aadhaar, which stalls the DBT release.
• District target already exhausted for the financial year, in which case the claim waits for the next allocation rather than being sanctioned.

Key dates and how the window works

iKhedut opens components in windows announced on the portal rather than staying open all year, so the practical advice is to complete your iKhedut 2.0 beneficiary registration in advance and watch the Schemes section. Gujarat is also asking farmers to enrol on the Farmer Registry at gjfr.agristack.gov.in, which the Agriculture Department says will simplify access to farmer-centric schemes in future. Because replanting is a seasonal field operation, plan the uprooting around the window rather than doing the work first and then hunting for an open application.

Help and grievance redressal

• Directorate of Horticulture, Gandhinagar: 079-23256104, Dir-bag@gujarat.gov.in
• Agriculture directorate (iKhedut): 079-23256200, ikhedut.gujarat@gmail.com
• Taluka Agriculture Officer or District Horticulture Officer for inspection and verification disputes
• Address: Krishi Bhavan, Sector 10-A, CH Road, Gandhinagar, Gujarat

There is no application fee on iKhedut, and no official will ever ask for your Aadhaar OTP over the phone.