Sardar Patel Agriculture Research Award

What is the Sardar Patel Agriculture Research Award?

Sardar Patel Agriculture Research Award, listed on the Directorate of Agriculture's own site as "Sardar Patel Krushi Sansodhan Puraskar", is a state-sponsored scheme of the Directorate of Agriculture, Gujarat, which works under the state's Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Co-operation Department. It appears at entry 13 in the Directorate's published list of 29 state-sponsored schemes at dag.gujarat.gov.in.

The scheme is a recognition award for agricultural research, named after Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the Gujarat-born statesman whose association with farmers' organisation in Kheda and Bardoli makes him the natural namesake for the state's agricultural honours.

This guide is deliberately short and cautious about numbers. The Directorate lists the scheme by name in its state-sponsored scheme index, but the detailed scheme page on dag.gujarat.gov.in is rendered by client-side scripting and its contents — the prize money, the number of awards each year, the nomination window and the selection committee: could not be read from any Gujarat government source at the time of writing. Rather than carry forward figures from unofficial sources, this page states only what the Directorate itself publishes.

Who is eligible for the Sardar Patel Agriculture Research Award?

The award is aimed at:

• Agricultural researchers and scientists working in Gujarat, typically at a state agricultural university, a research station or a government research institution.
• Research institutions whose work has advanced crop production, protection, soil management, horticulture or farm mechanisation in the state.

The following are not eligible, because this is not a farm-benefit scheme:

• Individual farmers seeking a subsidy, an input kit, equipment assistance or income support cannot apply. The award recognises research; it does not transfer money to a cultivator's bank account.
• Applicants outside Gujarat, since this is a state-sponsored scheme funded by the Gujarat exchequer.
• Commercial agri-input companies looking for a marketing endorsement. The award is a government recognition, not a product certification.

This is the single most important thing for a reader to take away. Many state scheme aggregators list the Sardar Patel Agriculture Research Award alongside farmer subsidy schemes, which leads people to look for an application form that does not exist. There is no iKhedut counter, no Digital Gujarat service and no citizen-facing online form for this award.

How to apply for or be nominated for the Sardar Patel Agriculture Research Award

Because the award runs on nomination rather than self-application, the real route is institutional:

1. Work through your institution. A researcher at a Gujarat state agricultural university, a research station or an ICAR-linked institute in the state should approach the head of the institution, who forwards nominations to the Directorate of Agriculture.
2. Ask the Directorate of Agriculture for the current year's nomination circular. Circulars and government resolutions for state-sponsored schemes are published in the Circular and Government Resolutions sections of dag.gujarat.gov.in and agri.gujarat.gov.in. Call 079-23256116 or write to dir-agri@gujarat.gov.in to confirm whether the window is open.
3. Prepare the nomination in the prescribed format, setting out the research work, the period over which it was done, its verified impact on Gujarat agriculture, and any publications or field trials that evidence it.
4. Have the nomination endorsed and forwarded by the head of the institution to the Directorate of Agriculture, Krishi Bhavan, Sector 10-A, CH Road, Gandhinagar.
5. Follow the Directorate's circulars for the announcement of results. Awards of this kind in Gujarat are typically conferred at a state agriculture event rather than notified individually by post.

Where does this scheme sit among Gujarat's agriculture schemes?

The Directorate of Agriculture's state-sponsored list of 29 schemes is dominated by direct farmer assistance rather than awards. A farmer who reached this page looking for money is almost certainly looking for one of these instead:

• Assistance to farmers to purchase heavy farm equipment (tractor)
• Wire fencing around the farm for crop protection
• Scheme to provide financial assistance to purchase a solar power unit or kit for solar fencing
• Kisan Parivahan Yojana for medium-size goods carriage vehicles
• Scheme for assistance on purchase of a smartphone by farmers
• Chief Minister's Agricultural Mechanization Scheme (AGR-2, AGR-3, AGR-4)
• Assistance to encourage adoption of organic farming
• CM on-farm storage structure scheme
• Farmers Family Accidental Insurance Scheme
• Incentive assistance to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe farmers for sugarcane area, production and productivity
• Training for Agriculture Learning and Integrated Mission (TALIM)

All of these run through the iKhedut portal, which is Gujarat's single application platform for agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry and fisheries subsidies, and which opens application windows for specific components at announced times in the year.

Help and contact

• Directorate of Agriculture, Gujarat: Krishi Bhavan, Sector 10-A, CH Road, Gandhinagar, Gujarat
• Phone: 079-23256116
• Email: dir-agri@gujarat.gov.in
• Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Co-operation Department: Block No. 5, First Floor, New Sachivalaya, Gandhinagar to 079-23250803, secagri@gujarat.gov.in
• Scheme list: dag.gujarat.gov.in/Home/StateSponsored

A note on completeness. The prize amount, the number of awards, the eligibility years and the nomination deadline for the Sardar Patel Agriculture Research Award are not published on any Gujarat government page that could be read at the time of writing. Anyone preparing a nomination should confirm the current year's terms directly with the Directorate of Agriculture on 079-23256116 before relying on figures quoted elsewhere online.

How to check your nomination status

The Sardar Patel Agriculture Research Award has no citizen-facing tracking system because it is not an individual application scheme, there is no iKhedut application number, no Digital Gujarat reference ID and no online dashboard where a researcher can log in and see a status bar. Following up on a nomination works through the same institutional channel the nomination itself travelled through:

1. Check with your own institution first. The nomination was forwarded by the head of your university, research station or institute, not by you directly, so that office is the first point of contact and usually hears back from the Directorate before an individual researcher would.
2. Call the Directorate of Agriculture on 079-23256116 and ask for the status of nominations under the state-sponsored scheme list, quoting the scheme name (Sardar Patel Agriculture Research Award / Sardar Patel Krushi Sansodhan Puraskar), the year of nomination and the sponsoring institution's name, since there is no personal application number to quote instead.
3. Write to dir-agri@gujarat.gov.in if the phone line does not resolve the query, referencing the same details, and keep a copy of the nomination letter and its forwarding date as your own record of when it was submitted.
4. Watch the Circular and Government Resolution sections of dag.gujarat.gov.in and agri.gujarat.gov.in, since results for awards of this kind are usually announced through a government resolution or at a state agriculture event rather than communicated individually to each nominee.
5. Do not expect an SMS or portal update. Because the award sits outside iKhedut and Digital Gujarat, none of the SMS or portal status-tracking mechanisms built for farmer subsidy schemes apply here.

Common reasons a nomination is not selected

Since this is a competitive research recognition rather than an entitlement paid to everyone who meets a criterion, most nominations that do not succeed fail for reasons connected to how the nomination was built and routed, not because of a missing signature on a subsidy form:

• Nomination not routed through the institution. A researcher who writes directly to the Directorate instead of going through the head of their university or research station risks the nomination not being treated as valid, since the Directorate's process expects institutional endorsement, not self-nomination. The fix is to route every nomination through the institution's head office before it goes anywhere near Gandhinagar.
• Nomination submitted outside the circular's window. Because there is no standing, always-open application form, a nomination prepared without first confirming the current year's circular can arrive after the Directorate has already closed the cycle. Calling 079-23256116 or checking the Circular section of dag.gujarat.gov.in before preparing the nomination avoids this.
• Research impact not demonstrated with evidence. A nomination that describes the research work in general terms but does not attach publications, field trial data or a documented account of how the work affected Gujarat's agriculture is weaker than one that shows measurable, verifiable impact. Attaching the underlying publications and trial records, not just a summary paragraph, strengthens the case.
• Work not connected to Gujarat agriculture. Since this is a state award funded by the Gujarat exchequer, research carried out entirely outside the state or with no demonstrated relevance to Gujarat's crops, soils or farming systems is unlikely to be preferred over research with a clear state connection.
• Confusing this award with a farmer subsidy and applying through iKhedut. Some nominations fail simply because the applicant treated this as a farmer assistance scheme and tried to apply through the iKhedut portal used for tractors, fencing, solar units and similar assistance. Since no iKhedut component exists for this award, that route does not reach the Directorate's award-selection process at all, and the applicant should instead follow the institutional nomination route described above.