Custom Hiring Centre Scheme for Crop Residue Management (Haryana)

What is the Custom Hiring Centre scheme for crop residue management?

The Custom Hiring Centre (CHC) scheme is the group component of the crop residue management programme run by the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Haryana. It exists because the machines that make in-situ straw management possible. A Super Seeder, a big round baler, a trailed paddy straw chopper; cost several lakh rupees each, far beyond what a farmer with two or three acres can justify buying.

According to the department's scheme document on the centrally sponsored programme Promotion of Agricultural Mechanization for In-Situ Management of Crop Residue in the States of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and NCT of Delhi, the programme is 100 per cent sponsored by the Government of India, and machinery has been supplied at 50 per cent to 80 per cent subsidy. The higher 80 per cent rate is reserved for machines placed in Custom Hiring Centres, precisely so that those machines circulate on hire among small and marginal farmers rather than sitting on one large farm.

How large is the CHC network in Haryana?

The department's own figures are specific. Of 72,777 in-situ management machines provided to date, 31,446 machines are held in 6,775 Custom Hiring Centres on 80 per cent subsidy, and 41,331 machines went to individual farmers. The year-wise build-up of CHCs was 1,194 in 2018-19, 1,685 in 2019-20, 1,345 in 2020-21 and 2,551 in 2021-22, with total programme spending of Rs 586.28 crore across both components, of which Rs 328.01 crore went into CHCs.

The department links this machinery push to a measurable fall in burning: active fire locations reported by HARSAC between 1 October and 30 November fell from 9,898 in 2020 to 6,987 in 2021, a 30 per cent reduction.

Who is eligible to set up a CHC?

You can apply if you are:

• A gram panchayat in Haryana.
• A farmer producer organisation (FPO) registered as a company or society.
• A cooperative society of farmers.
• A self-help group or a registered group of farmers.

The applicant must hold a valid registration document, a resolution authorising the application, a group PAN and a DBT-enabled bank account in the group's own name.

You are not eligible if:

• You are an individual farmer. The 80 per cent rate is not available to individuals; the separate individual component pays 50 per cent, capped by machine-wise ceilings.
• The group exists only on paper and cannot demonstrate a membership or a place to keep and maintain the machines.
• You want to buy a machine not approved on the department portal by the Farm Machinery Testing Centre at the College of Agricultural Engineering, CCS HAU, Hisar.
• The group has already been sanctioned the same machines in the recent past. The portal checks beneficiary history.
• The group intends to pay the dealer in cash, which the guidelines prohibit.

What documents does a group need?

How to apply for a CRM Custom Hiring Centre in Haryana

1. Get the group's paperwork in order first: registration certificate, PAN, authorising resolution and a DBT-enabled bank account in the group's name.
2. Watch agriharyana.gov.in for the year's CRM inviting letter and district targets. The 2025-26 round was invited by the Directorate's letter of 5 August 2025.
3. Open Apply for Agriculture Schemes on agriharyana.gov.in and file the application under the CHC category, listing the machines you propose to buy.
4. Upload the group's documents and the undertaking, then download the receipt and filled application form from the portal.
5. Await the online draw of lots conducted by the District Level Executive Committee under the chairmanship of the Deputy Commissioner, which fixes seniority against the district target.
6. On approval, download the subsidy eligibility certificate and complete the purchase within the period stated on it.
7. Buy from an approved manufacturer or dealer listed on the portal, after negotiating the price, and pay by bank transfer or cheque from the group account — never in cash.
8. Have the dealer upload the bill, e-way bill and location-tagged photographs, authenticated by OTP.
9. Present the machines for physical verification by the district committee, after which the District Level Executive Committee clears the subsidy for release into the group's account.

How is the money released?

Subsidy is disbursed by the department's PMU/IT cell through secure funds transfer on e-Sparsh, after the District Level Executive Committee approves the case on the portal. Where the subsidy on a single machine exceeds Rs 1 lakh, which is the norm for CHC-scale equipment such as balers, Super Seeders and tractor-drawn tedders, 70 per cent is released after the first physical verification and the balance 30 per cent after a re-verification carried out by a committee different from the first one.

Manufacturers must give one year of warranty on machines costing under Rs 2 lakh and two years above Rs 2 lakh, together with at least five years of after-sales and spare-parts support written on the bill. For a CHC that will run machines hard through a short paddy window every year, that written support commitment matters as much as the purchase price.

Why do CHC applications fail?

• Group documents incomplete: no resolution, an unregistered group, or a bank account in an individual's name rather than the group's.
• Bank account not DBT-enabled, or a DBT transaction limit lower than the subsidy amount.
• Cash payment to the dealer, which the guidelines disallow outright.
• Machine or manufacturer not approved on the department portal.
• Purchase not completed within the validity of the subsidy eligibility certificate, after which the slot passes to the next applicant in the draw.
• Laser-cut identification code mismatch between the machine and the bill. Where this is the manufacturer's or dealer's fault, they are liable to make good the farmer group's subsidy.

Where to get help

• Department toll-free helpline: 1800-180-2117, Monday to Friday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM.
• Directorate: 0172-2571544, Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Krishi Bhawan, Sector 21, Budanpur, Panchkula 134117.
• CRM dashboard: agriharyana.gov.in carries a live CRM dashboard where machine and district progress can be checked.
• Grievances can be filed through the Grievances link on agriharyana.gov.in.

At the district level, the Assistant Agriculture Engineer scrutinises the application and the Deputy Director of Agriculture approves it against the district target, so those two offices are the right first stop for a stuck file.

How to check your application status

1. Log in to agriharyana.gov.in with the same group credentials used to file the CHC application under Apply for Agriculture Schemes, and open the application dashboard. It shows the current stage: submitted, under scrutiny by the Assistant Agriculture Engineer, cleared for the draw of lots, or approved with a subsidy eligibility certificate issued.
2. Check the CRM dashboard on the same portal. It publishes district-wise progress on Custom Hiring Centres and machine sanctions, so a group can see whether its district's target and draw round have moved.
3. Keep the acknowledgement receipt downloaded at the time of filing; it carries the application reference number needed for any status query, whether online or in person.
4. If the online dashboard shows no movement for an extended period, call the department toll-free helpline, 1800-180-2117 (Monday to Friday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM), or the Directorate at 0172-2571544, quoting the application reference number.
5. For a case stuck after the draw of lots or during verification, follow up directly with the Assistant Agriculture Engineer at the district office who scrutinises the file, or the Deputy Director of Agriculture who approves it against the district target; these are the two offices actually holding the paper file at that stage.
6. Once machines are purchased, status moves to verification: the group can ask the district office whether the first physical verification (releasing 70 per cent of subsidy on machines over Rs 1 lakh) or the re-verification (releasing the balance 30 per cent) has been scheduled or completed.
7. If the portal shows no record of a submitted application at all, do not resubmit blindly. First confirm with the district office whether the filing was received, since a duplicate application can complicate the draw-of-lots seniority already assigned to the group.