Support to Human Resource Development for Technological Backstop for Sustainable and Accelerated Transformation of Agriculture (HADP Project 29)

What is HADP Project 29?

Support to Human Resource Development for Technological Backstop for Sustainable and Accelerated Transformation of Agriculture is Project 29, the last of the 29 projects in the all-round Agriculture Development Programme (HADP) of the Agriculture Production Department, Government of Jammu and Kashmir.

Twenty-eight of the HADP projects put money into fields, orchards, sheds, ponds and processing lines. Project 29 funds the people and the laboratories those projects depend on. Its logic, stated in the implementation guidelines, is that the two state agricultural universities: SKUAST-Jammu and SKUAST-Kashmir: already own a very large capital stock of laboratories, farms and equipment, and that this stock delivers little unless there is a running supply of consumables, repairs and trained postgraduate researchers to use it.

The programme is aimed at providing government support to the education and research of the agricultural universities, at attracting the young generation towards agricultural education so that it produces effective outcomes, and at making the universities' infrastructure capital more productive through continuous contingency support that acts, in the guidelines' own phrase, as fuel to run that infrastructure capital.

What are the two components of Project 29?

1. Vice Chancellors' Flexi Grant

The Flexi Grant is kept at the disposal of the Vice Chancellors of the two universities, who use it to support:

• Research contingencies: consumables, chemicals, glassware and running costs of ongoing research.
• Purchase, repair and maintenance of minor laboratory and farm equipment at different faculties, colleges, research stations and units of the university.

The single hard restriction is stated in capitals in the guidelines: the grant shall NOT be used for civil works. No building, no boundary wall, no new block. The money exists to keep what already stands in working order.

In practice the grant has been visible at both campuses. SKUAST-Jammu, for example, has publicly reported establishing advanced genomic and proteomic facilities — including a high-throughput biolistic system, a nanopore sequencer and 2D gel electrophoresis: under the Vice Chancellor's Flexi Grant of HADP.

2. PG and PhD Student Scholarships

All enrolled postgraduate and doctoral students of the two universities are eligible for the scholarship, provided they are not in receipt of an ICAR, CSIR or ICMR scholarship or fellowship, or any other sort of research funding. The non-duplication condition is the whole of the published eligibility test.

Who is eligible for HADP Project 29?

You can be covered if:

• You are an enrolled PG or PhD student at SKUAST-Jammu or SKUAST-Kashmir, in any faculty or college of the university.
• You are not drawing an ICAR, CSIR or ICMR scholarship or fellowship.
• You are not drawing any other sort of research funding.
• Alternatively, you are a faculty member, research station or unit of either university needing research contingency support or minor equipment repair, in which case you approach your own Vice Chancellor's office through the university's internal process.

You are not eligible, or cannot apply, if:

• You are a farmer, grower, entrepreneur or member of the public outside the two universities. Project 29 has no citizen-facing benefit and no district office handles it. If you are looking for an individual benefit under HADP, the subsidy-bearing projects are the correct route, for example Project 19 for a village soil testing lab, Project 23 for a heifer rearing unit, Project 26 for a trout or RAS unit, or Project 28 for fodder machinery.
• You already hold an ICAR, CSIR or ICMR fellowship or any other research funding. The scholarship is designed to reach students that the national fellowship system misses, not to top up those it already covers.
• You are a student at a college outside SKUAST-Jammu and SKUAST-Kashmir. The guidelines name only the two universities.
• You want the Flexi Grant for construction. Civil works are expressly barred.

How to apply under HADP Project 29

1. Confirm your enrolment status. The scholarship is for currently enrolled PG and PhD students; a completed degree or a lapsed registration does not qualify.
2. Check that you hold no other fellowship. Prepare a declaration that you are not in receipt of an ICAR, CSIR or ICMR scholarship or fellowship, or any other research funding, since this is the operative eligibility condition.
3. Apply through your university, the office of the Dean of Postgraduate Studies, or the HADP nodal officer of SKUAST-Jammu or SKUAST-Kashmir, whichever your university has designated. Attach your enrolment proof, the declaration, Aadhaar and bank account details.
4. For the Flexi Grant, route the requirement internally. Faculty and research stations submit their contingency or minor equipment requirement through the university's own channel to the Vice Chancellor's office, which operates the grant.

There is no separate district-level counter, no external portal and no application fee for Project 29.

An honest note on published figures

The HADP implementation guidelines set out Project 29 in a single page. They name the two components, define who may receive the scholarship, and prohibit civil works from the Flexi Grant. They do not publish a scholarship rate per month, a Flexi Grant amount per university, a beneficiary count, or a year-wise budget split.

Any rupee figure you see quoted online for a "SKUAST HADP scholarship" should therefore be checked directly with the Dean of Postgraduate Studies at your university before you rely on it. This guide deliberately states no amount rather than repeating an unverified one.

Help and contact

• SKUAST-Kashmir and SKUAST-Jammu, offices of the Dean of Postgraduate Studies and the HADP nodal officer, for scholarship and Flexi Grant queries
• Agriculture Production and Farmers Welfare Department, Jammu: 0191-2505201, email devagri-jk@jk.gov.in
• Agriculture Production and Farmers Welfare Department, Kashmir: 0194-2310265
• HADP portal: hadp.jk.gov.in, which lists all 29 projects and their schemes

Project 29 is the smallest and quietest of the 29 HADP projects, but it is the one that keeps the laboratories behind the other 28 running.