Horticulture Technology Mission for Jammu and Kashmir (HMNEH under MIDH)

What is the Horticulture Technology Mission in Jammu and Kashmir?

The Horticulture Technology Mission for Jammu and Kashmir is the technology-led horticulture development programme that today operates as HMNEH, the Horticulture Mission for North East and Himalayan States. A sub-scheme of the Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH). It is implemented in the Union Territory by the Department of Horticulture under the Agriculture Production Department, through the Directorates of Horticulture at Kashmir and Jammu and the Chief Horticulture Officer in each district.

Readers searching for the older name will find it written as the Technology Mission for horticulture in the North Eastern and Himalayan states. MIDH operational guidelines list six sub-schemes and record HMNEH as covering all states in the North East and Himalayan region, which is how Jammu and Kashmir draws on it. MIDH itself is described in those guidelines as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme for the all-round growth of the horticulture sector covering fruits, vegetables, root and tuber crops, mushrooms, spices, flowers, aromatic plants, coconut, cashew, cocoa and bamboo.

The single most important financial fact for a J&K orchardist is the funding pattern. According to MIDH guidelines, the Government of India contributes 85 per cent of the total outlay in other states with 15 per cent from the state government, but in the case of North Eastern and Himalayan states the GOI contribution is 100 per cent. Jammu and Kashmir therefore does not have to find a matching state share for these components.

The J&K Horticulture Department describes MIDH on its own site as facilitating infrastructure development, area expansion, protected cultivation, horticulture mechanisation, irrigation facilities, capacity building, organic farming and functional pack houses.

What benefits does the mission give an orchardist?

The mission is a menu of components rather than a single cash transfer. The rates below are taken from the J&K Horticulture Department's own published scheme booklet and the MIDH operational guidelines.

Protection from hail and birds. Anti-bird and anti-hail nets carry 50 per cent of the cost, at a cost norm of Rs 35 per square metre, limited to 5,000 square metres per beneficiary. The J&K booklet states the assistance as 0.000175 lakh per square metre, that is Rs 17.50 per square metre, which is exactly half the Rs 35 norm. At the full 5,000 square metre cap that comes to about Rs 87,500 per beneficiary. For an apple grower in Shopian, Kulgam or Baramulla, where a single hailstorm can destroy a season's crop, this is the component that matters most.

Planting material and new orchards. Area expansion for establishment of new orchards is available for a maximum of 4 hectares per beneficiary. For normal-spacing fruit plantation without integration, the incentive is Rs 0.180 lakh per hectare in the first year and Rs 0.060 lakh per hectare in the second year, the second-year payment being conditional on 75 per cent survival of the fruit plants. Under MIDH cost norms, high density planting of apple, mango, guava, litchi, pomegranate and citrus attracts 50 per cent of cost in Himalayan states, released in three instalments of 60:20:20 subject to a survival rate of 75 per cent in the second year and 90 per cent in the third.

Nurseries. A small private-sector nursery attracts Rs 7.50 lakh per hectare, and upgrading nursery infrastructure to meet accreditation norms attracts Rs 1.25 lakh per hectare.

Rejuvenation. Rejuvenation or replacement of a senile plantation with canopy management carries Rs 0.20 lakh per hectare, being 50 per cent of a Rs 40,000 per hectare norm, limited to two hectares per beneficiary.

Protected cultivation. Shade net houses on a tubular structure attract 50 per cent of cost for a maximum of 4,000 square metres per beneficiary. Green house, shade net, plastic tunnel and walk-in tunnel norms are all 15 per cent higher for hilly areas under MIDH, which applies to J&K.

Plastic mulching. 50 per cent of the total cost limited to 2 hectares per beneficiary, at Rs 0.184 lakh per hectare in the J&K booklet, corresponding to the hilly-area norm of Rs 36,800 per hectare.

Water resources. An individual water harvesting system attracts 50 per cent of cost, with the MIDH norm at Rs 1.80 lakh per unit in hilly areas against Rs 1.50 lakh in the plains.

Organic farming. A vermicompost unit of 30 feet by 8 feet by 2.5 feet attracts Rs 0.50 lakh per unit, and an HDPE vermibed of 12 feet by 4 feet by 2 feet attracts Rs 0.08 lakh per unit.

Who is eligible for the Horticulture Technology Mission in J&K?

You can be considered if:

• You are a horticulture farmer or orchardist in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
• You own the land or orchard for which you are claiming assistance, and can produce the revenue record.
• You obtain a recommendation from your Panchayati Raj Institution. The department's own booklet records "recommendation(s) from PRI" against essentially every component.
• Your land passes physical verification by the Horticulture Development Officer.
• For second-year plantation incentives, your orchard shows the required survival rate of fruit plants.

You cannot apply, or your case is not eligible, if:

• You do not own the land. A tenant or a person cultivating someone else's orchard cannot produce the revenue record the department requires.
• You have no PRI recommendation.
• You are claiming beyond the per-beneficiary caps: more than 4 hectares for area expansion, more than 2 hectares for rejuvenation or plastic mulching, more than 5,000 square metres for anti-hail or anti-bird nets, or more than 4,000 square metres for a shade net house.
• Your survival rate falls short. The second-year area expansion incentive is payable only where 75 per cent of the fruit plants have survived, so a failed plantation loses the follow-on instalment.
• Your district's annual target for that component is already exhausted.

How to apply for the Horticulture Technology Mission in Jammu and Kashmir

1. Register as a farmer on the HADP Kisan Sathi portal at hadp.jk.gov.in. The Agriculture Production Department describes HADP as covering 29 integrated projects and 171 or more schemes and activities across horticulture, crop and livestock husbandry, and routes farmer registration, tools and grievances through it.
2. Decide the component you want; anti-hail net, area expansion, shade net house, rejuvenation, vermicompost unit, water harvesting structure or pack house, and check the per-beneficiary cap for it, because you cannot claim beyond that cap however large your holding.
3. Get a recommendation from your Panchayati Raj Institution, your Sarpanch or Panch — since the department requires it against MIDH components.
4. Collect your revenue record showing the land or orchard in your own name.
5. Apply to the Chief Horticulture Officer or the Horticulture Development Officer of your district in the prescribed format, attaching the revenue record and the PRI recommendation.
6. Allow the physical verification. The Horticulture Development Officer inspects the land for feasibility and suitability and recommends acceptance or rejection.
7. Carry out the work; install the net, plant the orchard, build the structure; under the guidance of the Horticulture Development Officer and to the specifications prescribed.
8. Keep every bill and invoice, and produce them when the department verifies the installation, since assistance on most components follows verified work.

How to check the status of your application

Jammu and Kashmir does not publish a single public status tracker for every horticulture component. In practice there are three reliable routes:

1. The HADP Kisan Sathi portal at hadp.jk.gov.in, where you can log in with your farmer registration and use the Grievance Status option.
2. The office of the Horticulture Development Officer, who holds your verification report and knows whether it has been recommended to the Chief Horticulture Officer.
3. The office of the Chief Horticulture Officer, who holds the district target, the sanction and the payment file.

Keep the acknowledgement of your application and the date of physical verification. Both are what the office will ask for.

Why claims get rejected or held up

• No revenue record in the applicant's own name, which is the commonest disqualifier for tenants and joint-family cases where the land is still in an ancestor's name.
• Missing PRI recommendation, which the department treats as part of the application rather than an optional extra.
• Land found unsuitable on physical verification by the Horticulture Development Officer.
• Claim exceeding the per-beneficiary cap for the component.
• Survival rate below 75 per cent in the second year for area expansion, which forfeits the follow-on instalment.
• Work not done to prescribed specification, a net of the wrong mesh or a structure below the notified specification will not be certified.
• District target exhausted for the financial year.

What this mission does not do

The Horticulture Technology Mission does not pay a monthly allowance, does not compensate for crop loss, and does not procure your fruit. Crop loss on notified crops is dealt with under crop insurance, and price support for apple is handled separately through the marketing wing of the department. The mission funds capital items and inputs, nets, plants, structures, water sources, pack houses and compost units, and it funds them partially, against your own matching expenditure.

Where to get help and lodge a grievance

• Directorate of Horticulture, Jammu, Gole Pully, Talab Tillo, Jammu, phone 0191-2505781, fax 0191-2501219, website hortijmu.jk.gov.in.
• Directorate of Horticulture, Kashmir for districts of the Kashmir division.
• Department of Horticulture, J&K at horticulture.jk.gov.in, which links MIDH, HADP, PMKSY and the two Directorates.
• HADP Kisan Sathi portal, hadp.jk.gov.in, for farmer registration, the Credit Scheme Advisor at csa.jk.gov.in, the DPR Generator at dpr.hadp.in, the Daksh Kisan skilling portal at dakshkisan.jk.gov.in, and Lodge Grievance and Grievance Status.
• Kisan Khidmat Ghar (KKG) app on Android and iOS for expert support.
• MIDH national portal, midh.gov.in, for the current operational guidelines and cost norms.

There is no fee to apply for any component, and no agent can get your name added to a district target list.

A note on figures you may see quoted elsewhere

Figures of a 75 per cent subsidy on anti-hail nets and of free saplings circulate widely in news coverage and aggregator sites. Neither could be confirmed on a Government of Jammu and Kashmir or Government of India source. What the J&K Horticulture Department's own published scheme booklet and the MIDH operational guidelines state is 50 per cent of cost on anti-bird and anti-hail nets, at a norm of Rs 35 per square metre limited to 5,000 square metres, and subsidised rather than free planting material under area expansion. Before committing money, confirm the rate for the current financial year with your Chief Horticulture Officer, because cost norms and per-beneficiary ceilings are revised from time to time and separate Union Territory Capex components sit alongside the centrally funded ones.