Scheme to Provide Assistance for Setting Up Farmer Support Centers in State Market Committees and for Computerization of All Market Committees

What is this scheme?

The Scheme to Provide Assistance for Setting Up Farmer Support Centers in State Market Committees and for Computerization of All Market Committees is run by the Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Co-operation Department, Government of Gujarat, through the Directorate of Agricultural Marketing and Rural Finance. It is an institutional grant scheme with two distinct components, both paid to Agricultural Produce Market Committees rather than to farmers.

Gujarat's regulated marketing network is large. According to the Directorate of Agricultural Marketing and Rural Finance, the state's market committees operate a combined network of main yards and sub-yards running into the hundreds across every district, constituted under the Gujarat Agricultural Produce Markets Act, 1963. A farmer arriving at one of those yards with a trolley of groundnut or cotton has to navigate an auction process, a weighing procedure, a commission agent and a payment cycle. The farmer support centre component funds a desk inside the yard whose job is to answer exactly those questions. The computerisation component funds the machines that let a small market committee record and publish arrivals and rates rather than write them on a board.

What each component pays

• Farmer support centres: 50% of the cost incurred, including manpower in the form of employee salaries, or a maximum of Rs 2,00,000, whichever is less.
• Computerisation: the central software is developed by the State Government. Market committees in the "K" and "D" categories. The smaller categories in the department's classification of market committees; receive assistance of up to 90%, or Rs 2,00,000, for buying two computers, two printers and software.

The two components sit together in one scheme because they answer the same problem from two directions: a farmer who cannot get information, and a market committee that has no system capable of producing it.

Who is eligible for this assistance?

Eligible applicants

• Market committees of all areas of Gujarat State are eligible for the scheme. That is the eligibility condition as published.
• For the computerisation hardware assistance specifically, the "K" and "D" category market committees are the ones named for the 90% or Rs 2,00,000 support, reflecting that the larger committees can fund their own machines from market fee income.

Who cannot apply

• Individual farmers cannot apply. There is no personal payment under this scheme, no farmer registration and no DBT credit. A farmer benefits by using the support centre in the yard, not by receiving money.
• Traders, commission agents and licensees of the market yard are not eligible; the grant is to the committee that regulates them.
• Farmer producer organisations and co-operative societies are not the applicants under this particular scheme, which is addressed to market committees. A co-operative purchase-sale union looking for infrastructure support should look at the separate godown and warehouse scheme.
• A committee that has bought equipment outside the GeM portal is not eligible for the computerisation assistance on that purchase, because procurement through the Government e-Marketplace is a stated condition.
• A committee that has already drawn the ceiling cannot claim beyond Rs 2,00,000 for the same component.

What documents does a proposal need?

Additional documents may be called for during scrutiny, which is normal for a proposal-based grant.

How to apply for assistance under this scheme

1. Pass a resolution in the market committee approving the farmer support centre or the computerisation purchase, and prepare an itemised budget estimate. For the support centre, include the manpower cost, because salaries are part of the eligible cost on which the 50% is calculated.
2. Prepare the proposal with the registration or constitution papers of the market committee, the budget estimate, and, for hardware — the GeM portal purchase details for two computers, two printers and the software.
3. Submit the proposal to the Deputy Director and District Registrar of Co-operative Societies, routed through the Director of Agricultural Marketing and Rural Finance, Block No. 13, 2nd Floor, Dr. Jivraj Mehta Bhavan, Gandhinagar.
4. Await verification. After the proposal is verified at that level, it is sent on to the Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Co-operation Department for approval.
5. Receive the approval letter, then incur the expenditure in line with the sanction, buying hardware and software only through the GeM portal.
6. File the claim with bills, payment proof and the completion report so the grant can be released against verified expenditure.

How is the assistance released?

Assistance under both components is calculated on actual verified expenditure, capped at Rs 2,00,000 in each case. For the farmer support centre, the working is simple: total cost of running the centre for the sanctioned period, including employee salaries, multiplied by 50%, subject to the Rs 2 lakh ceiling. For computerisation, the eligible cost is the GeM invoice value of two computers, two printers and software, and a "K" or "D" category committee draws up to 90% of that, again subject to Rs 2 lakh.

Because the central software is developed by the State, a market committee does not have to procure or commission its own application. The hardware assistance exists so that the committee has machines capable of running it.

Why proposals get held up

• No committee resolution, or a resolution that does not match the budget submitted.
• Purchases made outside the GeM portal, which disqualifies the expenditure.
• Expenditure incurred before approval, leaving the committee holding a cost the department has not sanctioned.
• Manpower cost claimed without records; attendance, appointment orders and salary payment evidence for support centre staff.
• Wrong category claimed for the 90% computerisation support, which is addressed to "K" and "D" category market committees.
• Incomplete constitution or registration papers for the committee.

Where to get help

• Director of Agricultural Marketing and Rural Finance, Block No. 13, 2nd Floor, Dr. Jivraj Mehta Bhavan, Gandhinagar to 079-23253950, email director.apmc2018@gmail.com.
• Deputy Director and District Registrar of Co-operative Societies of the district, who receives and verifies the proposal.
• Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Co-operation Department, agri.gujarat.gov.in, for the department-level approval and for the scheme listing.

A farmer who wants help in a market yard should ask for the farmer support centre or the market committee secretary's office inside the yard. There is no application for a farmer to fill, and no fee of any kind is payable to use a support centre.