Mukhyamantri Raitha Vidya Nidhi Scholarship

What is Mukhyamantri Raitha Vidya Nidhi?

Mukhyamantri Raitha Vidya Nidhi is a scholarship programme of the Department of Agriculture (KSDA), Government of Karnataka, for the children of farming families. Students and schools often shorten the name to Raitha Vidya Nidhi or write it as Raita Vidyanidhi.

The department lists the scheme on its own site under Chief Minister Raitha Vidya Nidhi, together with the government orders that created and expanded it:

• 7 August 2021, the original government order notifying Mukhya Mantri Raitha Vidya Nidhi.
• 10 December 2021. A modification order amending the scheme.
• 31 December 2021 — an order extending the scholarship to high school girls.
• 30 August 2022, an order extending the programme to the children of agricultural labourers, who until then were outside a scheme built around land-owning farmers.

That last order is the one most families miss. Karnataka's agricultural workforce is not only land-owning cultivators, and the 2022 order brought labourers' children into a scheme that was originally designed around a farmer's land record.

The reasoning behind Raitha Vidya Nidhi is straightforward. Farm incomes in Karnataka move with the monsoon and with market prices, and a bad season pushes children out of school and college at exactly the point where continuing costs the most. A scholarship paid directly into the student's account is meant to keep that decision from being made on the strength of one failed crop.

How much does Raitha Vidya Nidhi pay?

Raitha Vidya Nidhi pays a fixed annual amount that rises with the level of study, so a high school student receives less than a student in an engineering or medical course.

The exact slabs are set out in the Department of Agriculture's government orders, which the department publishes on raitamitra.karnataka.gov.in in Kannada as scanned documents. There is no English rate card on the department's site, and figures circulating on private scholarship-listing websites could not be confirmed against an official Karnataka government source at the time of writing.

The practical advice is therefore concrete: check the amount for your course on the State Scholarship Portal application screen, or ask at your Raitha Samparka Kendra, before you count on a particular figure. Payment is made by Direct Benefit Transfer into the student's own bank account.

Who is eligible for Raitha Vidya Nidhi?

You can apply if:

• You are a resident of Karnataka.
• Your parent is a farmer registered with the Karnataka Department of Agriculture, or, under the 30 August 2022 order, an agricultural labourer.
• You are studying from high school upwards, including PUC, ITI, diploma, undergraduate, postgraduate and professional courses. High school girls were brought in specifically by the 31 December 2021 order.
• You have a bank account in your own name, Aadhaar-seeded, to receive DBT.

You are not eligible if:

• Your parent is not registered as a farmer or agricultural labourer with the Department of Agriculture. Registration is the anchor of the whole claim.
• You are not a resident of Karnataka, or your institution is not recognised.
• You are claiming a duplicate benefit. Karnataka's welfare departments each run their own post-matric scholarship, and the State Scholarship Portal checks for a student drawing from more than one.

Karnataka's Department of Agriculture keeps farmer records in the FRUITS farmer registration database, the same record that underpins PM-KISAN and crop survey work in the state. If your parent has never registered, that is the first step, and it is done at the local Raitha Samparka Kendra, not on the scholarship portal.

What documents are required for Raitha Vidya Nidhi?

How to apply for Raitha Vidya Nidhi

1. Make sure your parent's farmer registration with the Department of Agriculture is current. Visit the Raitha Samparka Kendra in your hobli with the land record or the labourer documentation and get the registration updated if it is old or missing.
2. Open the State Scholarship Portal at ssp.postmatric.karnataka.gov.in and create a student account. Students who applied in a previous year should log in with the existing account rather than registering again.
3. Select the Department of Agriculture and choose the scholarship for farmers' children.
4. Fill in your Aadhaar number, SSLC registration number, district, taluk, address, institution enrolment number and the parent's farmer registration details.
5. Enter your bank account details. The account must be in the student's own name and Aadhaar-seeded, because the money is released by DBT.
6. Submit the application and save the acknowledgement number.
7. Follow up with your school or college, which has to verify the application on SSP before the department can sanction it.

How to get help offline

1. Visit your Raitha Samparka Kendra, the Department of Agriculture's local farmer service point, for help with the farmer registration and the application.
2. Approach the taluk or district Assistant Director / Joint Director of Agriculture office if the farmer record itself is the problem.
3. Call the Department of Agriculture scholarship helpline on 1800-425-3553, or the State Scholarship Portal helpline on 1902.

How to check your Raitha Vidya Nidhi status

Log in to ssp.postmatric.karnataka.gov.in and open the application status page for the current academic year. The stages shown are saved but not submitted, pending with the institution, pending with the department, sanctioned, or rejected with a reason.

If the status reads sanctioned but no money has been credited, the fault is usually in the bank details, an account that is not Aadhaar-seeded, a name mismatch between Aadhaar and the bank record, or a dormant account.

Why Raitha Vidya Nidhi applications get rejected

• Parent's farmer registration missing or out of date in the department's records.
• Bank account not in the student's own name, or not Aadhaar-seeded, which blocks the DBT release even after sanction.
• Institution did not verify the application before the department's cut-off.
• Duplicate claim, where the student also draws an equivalent post-matric scholarship from a welfare department.
• Application submitted after the department's last date for that academic year.

Key dates and where they are published

The Department of Agriculture opens its Raitha Vidya Nidhi window each academic year through the State Scholarship Portal, and the closing date is announced on the portal rather than on a fixed calendar date every year. For context, the 2026-27 SSP deadlines announced for other departments were 31 August 2026 for Backward Classes and Scheduled Castes, 30 September 2026 for minorities and 31 January 2027 for Social Welfare. Check the Agriculture Department's own date on ssp.postmatric.karnataka.gov.in rather than assuming it matches another department's.

Help and grievance redressal

• Department of Agriculture scholarship helpline: 1800-425-3553
• State Scholarship Portal helpline: 1902, email postmatrichelp@karnataka.gov.in
• Raitha Samparka Kendra in your hobli, for farmer registration issues
• IPGRS Janaspandana at ipgrs.karnataka.gov.in for a written grievance

Applying is free. No agent can add a student's name to the Raitha Vidya Nidhi list, and no official will ask for your SSP password or an OTP.