Training for Horticulture Skill Development for Self-Employment at Centre of Excellence

What is the Training for Horticulture Skill Development for Self-Employment?

Training for Horticulture Skill Development for Self-Employment at Centre of Excellence is a skill training programme of the Directorate of Horticulture, which works under the Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Co-operation Department, Government of Gujarat. Training is delivered at the state's network of Centres of Excellence: demonstration and research farms built with international technical collaboration, each concentrating on a particular crop group.

The purpose is practical rather than academic. Gujarat has moved a large area from field crops into horticulture, and the technologies that make horticulture pay: drip irrigation, mulching, protected cultivation under polyhouse and shade net, grafted planting material, nursery raising, post-harvest handling and grading; are not things a farmer picks up by watching a neighbour. The Centres of Excellence exist to teach them hands-on, and this scheme brings farmers and farm youth into those centres as short-course trainees.

Key features

• Course length of 10 to 30 days, depending on the subject and the centre.
• Stipend of Rs 250 per trainee.
• Dining facility provided at the centre.
• Trainee kit and printed course literature supplied free.
• An experiential education tour as part of the course.
• Open to all communities, not restricted to a reserved category.

Where are Gujarat's Centres of Excellence?

The Directorate of Horticulture lists eight Centres of Excellence, each with its own crop specialisation and contact number:

Choosing the right centre matters more than choosing the nearest one. A farmer in Junagadh planning a date palm block gains more from Kukma in Kutch than from a general course closer to home.

Who is eligible for the horticulture training?

You can apply if:

• You are a resident of Gujarat.
• You are a farmer, farm youth, student or agricultural labourer interested in horticulture as a livelihood.
• You belong to any social category, the Directorate of Horticulture runs this programme across communities rather than restricting it.
• You can attend the full residential course, which runs from 10 to 30 days.
• You have an Aadhaar card and a bank account in your own name for the stipend.

You cannot apply, or are not eligible, if:

• You are not a resident of Gujarat.
• You cannot stay for the full duration of the batch. Short-course training is assessed on attendance, and partial attendance does not qualify for the stipend or a certificate.
• You are looking for a job placement or a subsidised loan rather than training. This scheme provides neither.
• The batch you want is full. Seats at each Centre of Excellence are limited by residential capacity, so a full batch means waiting for the next one.

What documents are required?

How to apply for horticulture skill development training

1. Identify the Centre of Excellence whose crop specialisation matches what you want to learn, using the table above.
2. Visit the office of the District Deputy Director of Horticulture in your district and ask for the enrolment form for the skill development training at Centre of Excellence.
3. Fill the form with your name, address, category, land details if any, and the course or crop you want, and attach copies of your Aadhaar, bank passbook and ration card.
4. Submit the form at the same office and ask for the next batch date at your chosen centre.
5. Attend the full batch at the centre. Attendance is recorded, and the Rs 250 stipend is paid against the trainee's bank account after the course.

The Directorate of Horticulture takes these applications offline. There is no self-service online enrolment for this training on the Directorate's site, unlike the subsidy components that run through i-Khedut.

What does the training actually cover?

Course content varies by centre because the centres are crop-specific, but the common ground across batches is practical work in the centre's own fields and protected structures. Trainees typically handle:

• Nursery and planting material: raising seedlings, grafting, budding and hardening.
• Protected cultivation — polyhouse and shade net structures, and what they cost to run.
• Irrigation and fertigation, drip layout, water budgeting and applying nutrients through the system.
• Crop management; training and pruning, canopy management, and pest and disease identification in the field.
• Post-harvest handling: grading, packing and reducing losses between the farm and the market.
• An experiential tour to working farms or facilities, which is where most trainees see the economics rather than the agronomy.

The Directorate publishes crop-wise material separately as e-books and e-bulletins on doh.gujarat.gov.in, which is worth reading before a batch.

What happens after the training?

The scheme is a skills programme, not a financing programme, and this is the point most applicants misread. Completing the course does not entitle you to a loan, a subsidy or a placement. What it does is put you in a position to use the Directorate's other schemes competently; planting material assistance, protected cultivation components, drip irrigation and post-harvest infrastructure components, most of which are applied for on i-Khedut.

A realistic sequence is: attend the training, decide the crop and scale, then apply for the relevant horticulture component on i-Khedut when its window opens, and approach a bank or a corporation separately for working capital.

Help and grievance redressal

• Directorate of Horticulture, Gandhinagar: 079-23256104
• Director of Horticulture email: dir-bag@gujarat.gov.in
• Planning and co-ordination branch: 079-23256101
• State plan schemes branch: 079-23256100
• State Horticulture Mission: 079-23256097
• Portal: doh.gujarat.gov.in, which carries the Centre of Excellence list, scheme details, nursery lists and district office contacts
• First point of contact: the District Deputy Director of Horticulture, who admits trainees to batches

No fee is charged for the training or the enrolment form. Contact the district office or the centre directly rather than through an intermediary.

A note on published detail

Gujarat's Directorate of Horticulture publishes the Centres of Excellence, their locations and their contact numbers, but it does not publish a fixed annual training calendar, a per-batch seat count or a syllabus document for this particular programme. The stipend of Rs 250 per trainee, the 10 to 30 day course length, and the kit, dining and study tour entitlements are as listed for the scheme on the Government of India's myScheme portal. For batch dates, seat availability and the exact course content in your district, the District Deputy Director of Horticulture is the authoritative source.