Training Scheme for Horticulture Skill Development to Landless Farm Labour at Centres of Excellence

What is the horticulture skill training scheme for landless farm labour?

The Training Scheme for Horticulture Skill Development to Landless Farm Labour is a skills programme of the Directorate of Horticulture, Gujarat, which works under the Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Co-operation Department. The scheme takes people who already work in agriculture as wage labour but own no land, and trains them in modern horticulture practice at the state's Centres of Excellence.

The reasoning behind the scheme is straightforward. Gujarat has invested heavily in high-value horticulture: polyhouses, shade net structures, drip and fertigation systems, grading and pack-house infrastructure, tissue culture and nursery production. All of it needs workers who can handle the equipment correctly. A labourer who can prune, graft, run a fertigation cycle or grade fruit to a buyer's specification earns considerably more per day than one who can only do general field work, and is employable through the year rather than in the sowing and harvest peaks alone. The scheme puts that skill within reach of the group least able to buy it privately.

Training is delivered at the directorate's Centres of Excellence, which are demonstration and training farms each specialising in particular crops and techniques. The directorate publishes the current list of centres and their locations on doh.gujarat.gov.in. Because these are working farms, the training is hands-on rather than classroom-only; trainees do the work under supervision on live crops and live equipment.

Key features

• Beneficiary group: landless farm labourers in Gujarat.
• Venue: the Directorate of Horticulture's Centres of Excellence.
• Content: practical horticulture — nursery, protected cultivation, irrigation, orchard management and post-harvest handling.
• Cost to the trainee: nil.
• Applied for through ikhedut.gujarat.gov.in or the district horticulture office.

Who is eligible for this horticulture training?

You can enrol if:

• You are a resident of Gujarat.
• You work in agriculture as a labourer and own no cultivable land in your own name. This is the defining condition of the scheme.
• You can produce a record or certificate from the talati or gram panchayat confirming that position.
• You are able to attend the full duration of the batch at the Centre of Excellence, which is residential or daily depending on the centre.

You cannot apply, or will not be eligible, if:

• You own cultivable land. Landowning farmers are served by the directorate's separate farmer training and demonstration programmes, not by this one.
• You are not a resident of Gujarat, since the scheme is funded from the state horticulture budget.
• You cannot produce proof of landless agricultural labour status from the panchayat or talati.
• You apply when no batch is running at the centre and the i-Khedut component is closed.

What documents are required?

How to apply for the horticulture skill training

1. Ask at the taluka or district horticulture office, or at the nearest Centre of Excellence, when the next batch for landless farm labour is scheduled. Batches are notified centre by centre rather than on a single statewide calendar, so this call is the real starting point.
2. Get the landless farm labourer certificate from your talati or gram panchayat. Without it the application cannot be classified under this scheme, and it is the document most applicants do not have ready.
3. Open ikhedut.gujarat.gov.in, choose Horticulture as the department, and check whether the training component is open for the current financial year. Register with your Aadhaar and mobile number if you are a first-time user, then log in.
4. Fill the application with your personal details, village and taluka, and the centre you wish to attend, and upload the Aadhaar copy, the landless labour certificate and your residence proof.
5. Submit and print the acknowledgement, sign it, and hand it in with photocopies at the office named on the printout.
6. Report to the Centre of Excellence on the date given for the batch, with your original documents and photographs, and complete the enrolment formality at the centre.
7. Attend the full batch and collect the training certificate issued on completion.

If you are not comfortable with the online form, the taluka horticulture office and the gram panchayat Village Computer Entrepreneur will file the i-Khedut application on your behalf. Ask for the printed acknowledgement in either case.

What does the training cover?

Training at a Centre of Excellence is built around the work the centre actually does. Depending on the centre and the crops it specialises in, a batch typically covers nursery and planting material production including grafting and budding, protected cultivation under greenhouse and shade net structures, drip irrigation and fertigation operation, orchard and plantation management including pruning and training of plants, plant protection practice, and grading, packing and post-harvest handling for the market.

These are the tasks that commercial horticulture units in Gujarat hire for. A trainee who finishes a batch is generally looking at work in a nursery, a polyhouse unit, an orchard or a pack-house rather than at starting a farm, since by definition the trainee owns no land.

What does the trainee receive?

The training itself is provided free by the Directorate of Horticulture. The directorate meets the cost of the trainers, the centre and the materials used during the batch. Whether a stipend, boarding or travel allowance is paid to trainees depends on what is sanctioned for that batch and that financial year, and the figure is not published as a fixed statewide rate. Ask the Centre of Excellence or the district horticulture officer for the rate applicable to the batch you are joining, and do not rely on an amount quoted by a private website.

A training certificate is issued on completion. That certificate is the lasting benefit: it is what an employer in a nursery, polyhouse or pack-house asks to see.

How do I check the status of my application?

1. Log in to ikhedut.gujarat.gov.in and open the application status option with the application number on your acknowledgement.
2. Follow up with the taluka or district horticulture office, which holds the physical papers and knows the batch schedule.
3. Contact the Centre of Excellence directly to confirm the reporting date once your name is on a batch list.

Why applications do not go through

• No landless farm labourer certificate from the talati or panchayat.
• Land found recorded in the applicant's name, which takes the case out of this scheme.
• Applying when no batch is scheduled at the chosen centre.
• Signed printout not submitted to the named office after online filing.
• Not reporting on the batch start date, after which the seat is given to the next person on the list.

Help and grievance redressal

Approach the taluka horticulture officer first, then the District Horticulture Officer, and then the Directorate of Horticulture, which publishes contact details and the list of Centres of Excellence on doh.gujarat.gov.in. The i-Khedut portal carries its own help section for registration, login and upload problems.

Enrolment is free. No fee is charged for the training or the certificate, and no agent is authorised to charge for arranging a seat in a batch.