Promoting to Farmer for Post Harvesting & Management (Value Addition)

What is the Post Harvesting and Management value addition scheme?

Promoting to Farmer for Post Harvesting & Management (Value Addition) is a scheme of the Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Co-operation Department, Government of Gujarat. The scheme encourages farmers to stop selling raw produce at the farm gate and instead set up crop value addition units that use post-harvest technology and post-harvest management practice.

The problem it addresses is familiar across Gujarat's groundnut, cotton, cumin, castor, onion, mango and banana belts. A farmer who sells unprocessed produce captures the lowest margin in the chain, and a season of good yield can still end in a poor price. Cleaning, grading, drying, packaging, grinding, oil expelling or pulping, done close to the field; moves part of that margin back to the producer. This scheme pays part of the cost of the machinery that makes such processing possible.

Applications are handled entirely through iKhedut, Gujarat's agriculture scheme portal at ikhedut.gujarat.gov.in, which the department upgraded to iKhedut 2.0 for the 2025-26 financial year with real-time application tracking, an eligibility checker and a mobile app. Assistance is paid as cash into the applicant's Aadhaar-seeded bank account through Direct Benefit Transfer, and applications are settled first come, first served within the target fixed for the year.

Who is eligible for the value addition scheme?

These applicants can apply:

• Farmers of every category: small, marginal, general, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe; holding land in Gujarat.
• Farmer Interest Groups (FIGs) and Farmer Producer Groups.
• Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs) and other farmer producer organisations.
• Self-Help Groups and Sakhi Mandals of women farmers.
• Village-level co-operative societies.
• Individuals holding a Diploma in Agriculture, a graduate degree in Agriculture or a postgraduate qualification in Agriculture, who are listed as eligible applicants in their own right.

These applicants are not eligible:

• Applicants resident outside Gujarat or proposing a unit outside the state.
• Applicants who cannot produce a land record or a group registration certificate, since one or the other anchors the application.
• Applicants who have already bought the machinery before pre-approval was issued; prior purchase normally makes the bill ineligible.
• Applicants who have drawn assistance for the same machinery under another central or state scheme in the same period, because the same asset cannot be subsidised twice.
• Applications filed after the annual target is exhausted are not rejected on merit but are held over, which in practice is the same disappointment.

What documents are required?

How to apply on iKhedut for the value addition scheme

1. Open ikhedut.gujarat.gov.in and check the scheme notice to confirm that the application window for the current financial year is open. Windows are announced for a limited period and close once the target is met.
2. Register or sign in as a farmer. First-time users register with personal details, Aadhaar number, mobile number and land particulars. Farmers without a computer can use the Village Computer Entrepreneur (VCE) at the Gram Panchayat, who assists free of charge.
3. Select "Schemes", then the agriculture scheme list, and choose the post harvesting and value addition scheme from the list shown for your district.
4. Fill the application form with your name, address, land details, bank account and the details of the value addition unit you propose to set up, and attach the project proposal.
5. Upload the documents — Aadhaar, 7/12 and 8-A extract, bank passbook and the registration or education certificate as applicable: in PDF or JPEG form.
6. Save the application, then confirm it. Once an application is confirmed on iKhedut it cannot be edited, so read every field before confirming.
7. Print the confirmed application, sign it, attach self-attested document copies and submit the file to the village-level extension worker, the Gram Sevak or the taluka agriculture office within the period stated on the acknowledgement, commonly about seven days.
8. Wait for pre-approval before purchasing. Buy the machinery only after the approval or work order is issued, then submit the invoice and payment proof for the assistance to be released to your bank account.

How to check your application status

1. Open the Check Application Status page on iKhedut at ikhedut.gujarat.gov.in/Scheme/frm_SchemeApplicationStatus.aspx.
2. Enter your application number and the registered mobile or Aadhaar number, then submit.
3. The screen shows whether the application is confirmed, whether the physical file has been received, whether it is pre-approved, and whether payment has been released.
4. If the status has not moved for several weeks, follow up at the taluka agriculture office or with the District Agriculture Officer, quoting the application number.

Why applications get rejected

• Application saved but never confirmed on the portal, so it never entered the queue.
• Signed printout not submitted to the village or taluka office within the stated period.
• Name mismatch between Aadhaar, the bank passbook and the land record.
• Bank account not Aadhaar-seeded, so the DBT payment fails even after approval.
• Machinery bought before pre-approval, making the expenditure ineligible.
• Group registration certificate missing where the applicant is an FPO, SHG or co-operative society.
• Annual target exhausted before the application's turn came up.

Most of these are fixable in the next window. Correct the Aadhaar-bank seeding at your branch, get the land record updated at the village revenue office, and reapply on the opening day of the next cycle.

Key dates and how the annual window works

Gujarat does not keep iKhedut open all year for every scheme. The department notifies a window for each financial year, and for 2025-26 the portal opened for applications on 5 May 2025. Within a window, the department fixes a physical and financial target per district, and applications are considered in the order received until that target is used up. This is why farmers in Gujarat treat the opening date of an iKhedut window as a deadline in itself.

Help and grievance redressal

• iKhedut portal: ikhedut.gujarat.gov.in, for applications, scheme notices and application status.
• Village Computer Entrepreneur at the Gram Panchayat, free help with registration and form filling.
• Taluka Agriculture Office and District Agriculture Officer, the offices that receive the physical file and can explain a rejection.
• Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Co-operation Department: agri.gujarat.gov.in for department-level contact details and scheme circulars.

No fee is charged for applying on iKhedut, and no agent can move an application up the first-come, first-served queue.