Promotion of Nutri Cereals - Millets (HADP Project 8)

What is HADP Project 8 on millets?

Promotion of Nutri Cereals (Millets) is the eighth of the 29 projects cleared under the all-round Agriculture Development Programme (HADP), the Rs 5,013 crore five-year package of the Agriculture Production Department, Government of Jammu and Kashmir. The project adopts the operational guidelines of the centrally sponsored scheme on Food and Nutritional Security (Nutri-Cereals).

Millets are not new to Jammu and Kashmir. Foxtail millet, proso millet, barnyard millet and finger millet were staples of the rainfed belts of Rajouri, Poonch, Reasi, Doda and the Kandi areas long before rice and wheat displaced them. Project 8 tries to bring them back for two reasons at once: they need far less water than paddy in a union territory increasingly short of it, and they now command a nutrition premium in urban markets.

Crucially, the project funds both ends. Farmers get free seed and free demonstrations at the production end. At the consumption end, HADP funds millet mills so that grain can be processed locally, and millet restaurants so there is visible demand for the processed product.

What are the subsidy rates under HADP Project 8?

Certified seed production is restricted to varieties less than 10 years old, raised on departmental farms or through the Seed Village Programme.

Who is eligible for HADP Project 8?

You can seek assistance if:

• You are a millet-growing farmer resident in Jammu and Kashmir, with land recorded in your name or held on registered lease.
• You are a progressive or innovative young farmer, or a member of an SHG, Women Food Security Group or cooperative society, the guidelines say these categories will be preferred, with active involvement of PRI members.
• You are a marginal, SC or ST farmer, in which case the millet mill subsidy rises to 60 per cent up to Rs 5.40 lakh.
• You are a young entrepreneur wanting to open a millet restaurant, for which the component is explicitly framed as employment generation for youth.
• You farm in a millet-growing area — micronutrient assistance is distributed through PRIs in millet-growing areas only.

You cannot apply, or are not eligible, if:

• You have already availed the same activity under the Nutri-Cereals scheme, RKVY or another programme. HADP bars duplication of activities.
• You are seeking the road show and campaign budget, varietal characterisation, seed hub establishment, branding or entrepreneurship development components. These are institutional, executed with SKUAST scientists, and individuals are not eligible to apply for them.
• You are not resident in Jammu and Kashmir.
• You want a millet mill financed by a bank loan but processed offline; no offline credit-linked HADP case is accepted.

What documents are required?

How to apply for HADP Project 8

1. Register on the Kisan Sathi portal at hadp.jk.gov.in using your mobile number and Aadhaar details.
2. Log in and open Project 8 to Promotion of Nutri Cereals (Millets).
3. Choose the form you need: Establishment of Millet Mills or Establishment of Millet Restaurant.
4. Enter the proposed capacity of the mill or the location and seating of the restaurant, and state your category, since marginal, SC and ST applicants get the higher 60 per cent rate on mills.
5. Prepare a DPR using the portal's DPR Generator and upload it with Aadhaar, land or site papers, bank passbook and caste certificate where applicable.
6. Submit and note the application reference number.
7. If credit is needed, the head of department sponsors the case electronically to your bank branch. The bank may seek further documents under RBI norms.
8. Set up the mill or restaurant, then let the departmental committee verify it. Subsidy is released back-ended through DBT, or into the loan account with a three-year lock-in for credit-linked cases.

How do I get the seed, minikits and input assistance?

1. Contact your panchayat PRI member and the block agriculture office. Minikits and nutritive variety seed are distributed through PRI members, not through a portal form.
2. Join a cluster demonstration organised through an FPO, SHG, Women Food Security Group, CBO or lead farmer in a contiguous area, these run at 100 per cent subsidy.
3. Ask the block office for the INM and IPM components: micronutrient, bio-fertiliser, bio-pesticide and bio-herbicide, which are given at per hectare rates against your recorded area.

How do I check my application status?

1. Log in at hadp.jk.gov.in with your registered mobile number.
2. The applicant dashboard shows each application at its current stage.
3. Where a sanction shows but no money has been credited, confirm your bank account is active and Aadhaar-seeded.

Why millet applications get rejected

• Duplication, a mill or processing unit already availed under the Nutri-Cereals scheme or another programme.
• No caste certificate where the 60 per cent rate has been claimed, so the case is reassessed at 50 per cent or returned.
• Weak DPR for a mill, particularly where the projected throughput far exceeds local millet production.
• Land not in a millet-growing area, for per-hectare input components.
• Variety more than 10 years old in a certified seed production claim.
• Unit not established at the time of verification, blocking the back-ended release.

Where do I raise a complaint?

• Use the Grievance link on hadp.jk.gov.in, then track it under Grievance Status.
• Contact the Agriculture Production Department at 0191-2505201 (Jammu) or devagri-jk@jk.gov.in.
• Escalate through your Chief Agriculture Officer or the Mission Directorate, HADP.

Kisan Sathi registration is free, and minikits and demonstration inputs under this project are supplied at 100 per cent subsidy; no farmer should be asked to pay for them.