Scheme for Subsidy on Interest for Establishment of 1 to 20 Milch Animal Farm

What is the interest subsidy scheme for a 1 to 20 milch animal farm?

Scheme for Subsidy on Interest for Establishment of 1 to 20 Milch Animal Farm is a dairy credit support scheme of the Directorate of Animal Husbandry under the Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Co-operation Department, Government of Gujarat. The scheme does not give a farmer money to buy animals. It reduces the cost of the loan the farmer takes to buy them, by paying up to 12 per cent interest a year for 5 years straight into the loan account.

The unit the scheme is built around is small and realistic: 1 to 20 milch animals, cow or buffalo, chosen by the farmer according to need and the capacity to maintain the herd. Gujarat's dairy economy runs on exactly this scale of household unit feeding into village co-operatives, which is why the department supports it through the credit route rather than through equipment grants. Farmers commonly refer to it as the pashupalan vyaj sahay yojana.

The economics matter. A dairy loan from a nationalised bank typically carries interest in the high single digits to low teens. An interest subsidy of up to 12 per cent, subject to the actual interest charged, can therefore neutralise most or all of the interest burden for five years. The years when a new herd is still building up milk yield and the household cash flow is tightest.

Key features

• Interest subsidy of up to 12 per cent on the animal loan.
• Support runs for 5 years from the establishment of the unit.
• Unit size of 1 to 20 milch animals, cows or buffaloes.
• The subsidy is the lower of the actual bank interest or 12 per cent of the unit cost of the animal or the unit loan advanced.
• Paid as direct benefit transfer into the loan account, in instalments. No cash assistance to any beneficiary.
• One beneficiary per family.
• Loan must be from a nationalised bank or an RBI-approved financial institution, taken in the financial year for which the component is open.
• Applications only on the iKhedut portal.

Who is eligible for the milch animal interest subsidy?

A cattle breeder qualifies when all of these are true:

• The applicant is a permanent resident of Gujarat.
• The applicant is a farmer or cattle breeder setting up a unit of 1 to 20 milch animals.
• The applicant has obtained a loan for setting up the unit from a nationalised bank or an RBI-approved financial institution in the financial year for which the component is open. The myScheme listing of the scheme records this condition against the 2023-24 financial year, so a farmer should check the current year's condition on iKhedut before applying.
• Land is owned by the applicant or by a member of the applicant's family.
• Only one member of the family is claiming the benefit.
• The applicant can produce a certificate from the animal husbandry authority confirming establishment of the livestock unit.

Who cannot apply

• Residents of other states are not eligible.
• A farmer who has not taken a bank loan cannot apply. This is an interest subsidy, so with no loan there is no interest to subsidise and nothing to pay.
• A farmer whose loan came from a private moneylender, an unregistered co-operative or a family member is not eligible, because the lender must be a nationalised bank or an RBI-approved institution.
• A farmer whose loan was taken in a financial year other than the one the component covers cannot claim under that component.
• A second member of the same family cannot apply once one member is a beneficiary.
• A farmer setting up a unit of more than 20 milch animals falls outside the scheme's unit definition.
• An applicant who intends to use the assistance for any purpose other than the dairy unit is barred; the department states plainly that the grant may not be used for another purpose.

What documents are required?

Each scanned PDF uploaded to iKhedut must be under 200 KB. The loan document is the one that decides the case: it must show the lender's name, the sanction date and the amount, because the department matches all three against the scheme's conditions.

How to apply for the milch animal interest subsidy on iKhedut

1. Open the animal husbandry scheme application page on iKhedut, ikhedut.gujarat.gov.in, and find the interest subsidy component for establishment of a 1 to 20 milch animal farm.
2. Select "Apply New" and complete the application form with your personal details, village and taluka, land details, bank and loan account details, and the number and type of animals in the unit.
3. Use "Update Application" to correct any entry before you confirm.
4. Select "Upload Document" and upload the loan passbook or disbursement certificate, photo ID, bank details and undertaking, each as a PDF under 200 KB.
5. Confirm the application within 7 days of saving it. Confirmation is a separate step and an unconfirmed application is not filed.
6. Print the confirmed application, sign or thumbprint it, and submit it with the supporting documents to the office address printed on the application.
7. Cooperate with verification of the unit by the animal husbandry authority, which issues the certificate confirming the livestock unit exists.

How to apply if you cannot use the portal

1. Go to a Village Computer Entrepreneur at the Gram Panchayat or a Common Service Centre with your loan papers, Aadhaar and bank passbook. iKhedut accepts no paper-first application.
2. Have the operator fill and confirm the form in your presence, and collect the printout showing the application number.
3. Submit the signed printout with documents at the office named on the printout — usually the taluka or district animal husbandry office, and take a receipt.

How is the interest subsidy calculated and paid?

The department pays the lower of two figures: the interest actually charged by the bank, or 12 per cent calculated on the unit cost of the animal or on the unit loan advanced by the bank for buying the animal, whichever of those is less.

The payment goes into the loan account as a direct benefit transfer, in instalments, and is paid annually over the five-year support period. No beneficiary receives cash. A farmer expecting a lump sum in a savings account has misread the scheme; the benefit shows up as a smaller interest debit on the loan statement.

A worked illustration of the ceiling logic: if the bank charges 10 per cent and the 12 per cent ceiling on the unit cost works out higher, the department pays the 10 per cent actually charged. If the bank charges 14 per cent, the department pays only up to the 12 per cent limit and the farmer carries the remaining 2 per cent.

How do I check my application and payment status?

1. Open ikhedut.gujarat.gov.in and go to the Applicant Corner.
2. Enter the application number with the registered mobile number or date of birth as prompted, and view the status.
3. For the payment itself, check the loan account statement at your bank branch, because the subsidy is credited there and not to a savings account.

If the portal shows the application as saved rather than confirmed, it will not progress. If it shows as confirmed but not inwarded, the physical file or the uploaded documents are the likely gap.

Why do these applications get rejected?

• Application not confirmed within 7 days of saving it online.
• No qualifying loan, or a loan from a lender outside the approved list.
• Loan taken in the wrong financial year for the component being applied under.
• Wrong or incomplete documents uploaded, in which case the application is not inwarded online. The department allows the beneficiary to submit the correct or remaining documents to the concerned office within 7 days of the application, which saves most such cases.
• Documents over 200 KB, which the portal will not accept.
• Second claim from the same family, blocked by the one-beneficiary rule.
• Signed printout not submitted to the office named on the application.
• Unit not verified by the animal husbandry authority, so the certificate of establishment is missing.
• Budget exhausted for the component in that financial year, a rejection that has nothing to do with the applicant's merits.

Where do I raise a grievance?

• Taluka or district animal husbandry office is the first stop, because the physical file and the unit verification sit there.
• Deputy Director of Animal Husbandry, District Panchayat handles escalations against the taluka office.
• Directorate of Animal Husbandry, Gujarat, at doah.gujarat.gov.in, is the state-level authority for the interest subsidy scheme.
• Your lending bank branch is the right place for a query about whether the subsidy has actually been credited to the loan account.
• iKhedut portal helpdesk, reachable from the portal's contact page, deals with technical faults.

Applying is free. No agent can secure approval, and no bank official is entitled to a fee for issuing the loan disbursement certificate the scheme requires.