Krishi Bhagya Scheme

What is the Krishi Bhagya Scheme?

Krishi Bhagya is a scheme of the Department of Agriculture, Government of Karnataka (KSDA), aimed at farmers in rainfed areas, land that depends on the monsoon rather than on a canal or a borewell. Krishi Bhagya is built around the krishi honda, the Kannada term for a farm pond dug on the farmer's own holding, together with a package of linked works that let the farmer catch, store and then use rainwater that would otherwise run off the field.

The scheme has been in operation since the department issued its first implementation circular, "Procedure to follow to implement Krishi Bhagya guidelines", Circular-1 dated 8 September 2014. It remains active: the department's official Krishi Bhagya page carries guidelines and government orders running through 2023-24, 2024-25, 2025-26 and 2026-27.

The logic of the scheme is worth understanding before applying. Most of Karnataka's cultivated area is rainfed, and the binding problem there is not the total rainfall in a season but its distribution, a three or four week dry spell at the wrong stage of the crop can destroy a harvest that the season's total rainfall would otherwise have supported. Krishi Bhagya addresses that specific failure by storing runoff on the farm so that one or two protective irrigations can be given exactly when the crop needs them.

What does Krishi Bhagya provide?

Krishi Bhagya is a package, not a single grant. The components are linked in a chain, and the department's annual guideline fixes which components are on offer, the cost ceiling for each, and the share of that cost the state will bear.

The package is built around these connected pieces of work:

• The farm pond (krishi honda), the excavation itself, sized to the catchment and the holding.
• A lining for the pond, so that stored water does not seep away into the soil before it can be used. In many soils an unlined pond empties itself.
• Protection around the pond, because an open excavation on a farm is a real hazard to people and livestock.
• A means of lifting the stored water, such as a pump set.
• A means of applying it efficiently, such as a micro-irrigation set, so that a limited volume of stored water covers a useful area.

Important: the exact component list, the unit cost ceilings and the subsidy percentages are revised in the government order for each financial year. This guide deliberately does not quote a percentage, because Krishi Bhagya rates have been revised repeatedly since 2014 and a stale figure is worse than none. Ask your Raitha Samparka Kendra for the current-year Krishi Bhagya guideline and read the rate from that order.

Who is eligible for Krishi Bhagya?

You can apply if:

• You are a farmer in Karnataka cultivating rainfed land, and the land is recorded in your own name in the RTC (pahani).
• You have a FRUITS ID, Karnataka's unified farmer registration.
• The survey number where you propose the work is suitable for a farm pond; department staff assess catchment, slope and soil before sanction.
• You have an active bank account for Direct Benefit Transfer.

Karnataka earmarks a share of the annual target for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe farmers, so applicants in those categories should attach a caste certificate and ask the RSK which component of the target their application is being counted against.

You are not eligible / cannot apply if:

• You hold no land record in your own name. Krishi Bhagya funds a permanent structure on a holding, so recorded rights over that holding are the foundational condition. Tenants, sharecroppers and agricultural labourers without recorded rights cannot apply on their own account.
• The land is not yours to build on. Applications proposing works on land held by someone else, or on disputed survey numbers, are rejected.
• The holding is assured-irrigated. The scheme's purpose is rainfed farming; land with dependable canal or well irrigation is outside its focus.
• You are asking for cash rather than works. Krishi Bhagya reimburses the cost of sanctioned physical works after verification. There is no cash grant and no payment for work not actually built.

How to apply for Krishi Bhagya

Krishi Bhagya applications go through the Department of Agriculture's own field network. There is no self-service online application form for the farmer.

1. Get your FRUITS ID created if you do not already have one. FRUITS. The Farmer Registration and Unified Beneficiary Information System; is the Karnataka government's single farmer database, developed by DPAR e-Governance with NIC, and it is shared by the Agriculture, Horticulture, Sericulture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries departments. Over one crore farmers are registered on it. Carry your RTC, Aadhaar and bank passbook.
2. Visit the Raitha Samparka Kendra (RSK) for your hobli. The RSK network was established under the Raitha Mitra scheme to open one agriculture office at each hobli, and it is the department's front counter for farmers.
3. Ask for the current financial year's Krishi Bhagya guideline and confirm that applications are open, which components are on offer this year, and what the sanctioned cost ceiling and subsidy share are.
4. Submit the application with your FRUITS ID, RTC, Aadhaar, bank passbook, photograph and, if claiming under the SC or ST component — your caste certificate.
5. Wait for the site inspection and the sanction order. Departmental staff inspect the proposed site and the holding before a work is sanctioned. Do not start construction before the sanction order is issued; work begun in advance is a routine ground for rejection.
6. Complete the sanctioned work to the specification in the order, and ask for joint measurement and physical verification once it is done.
7. Receive the subsidy by DBT into your Aadhaar-seeded bank account after verification.

Why do Krishi Bhagya applications get rejected?

• No FRUITS registration, or a FRUITS record whose land details do not match the RTC.
• Land not in the applicant's name, or a survey number under dispute.
• Work started before sanction. This is the most avoidable rejection of all.
• Annual physical target already exhausted for the district or taluk. Krishi Bhagya works to a yearly target, so a technically eligible application can still be held over to the next year.
• Aadhaar and bank account not seeded, which stops the DBT release even after the work is approved.
• Work not built to the sanctioned specification, found at verification.
• Duplicate benefit. A farm pond already sanctioned on the same survey number under this or another scheme.

Where do you get help or complain?

• Raitha Call Centre (toll free): 1800 425 3553 or 8277003553. The Department of Agriculture's farmer helpline.
• Raitha Samparka Kendra, hobli level, first point of contact for application status.
• Assistant Director of Agriculture, taluk, then the Joint Director of Agriculture, district. The escalation route for a sanctioned work that is not being paid.
• FRUITS helpdesk, fruitshelpdesk[at]karnataka[dot]gov[dot]in, for problems with the farmer registration itself.
• Official scheme page, raitamitra.karnataka.gov.in, where the year-wise Krishi Bhagya guidelines and government orders are published for download.

Applying for Krishi Bhagya is free. No agent can secure a sanction for a fee, and the subsidy is paid only into the farmer's own bank account by DBT.

How to check your Krishi Bhagya application status

Krishi Bhagya has no self-service online tracking portal for farmers, since the application itself is filed offline at the Raitha Samparka Kendra (RSK), not through a web form. Status has to be chased through the same offline channel the application went through, so keep the paper trail from the day you apply.

1. Note your application reference at the time of filing. When you submit your papers at the RSK, ask the staff to give you an acknowledgement slip or note the application number in your own record. Without this reference, RSK staff have to search for your file by name and survey number, which is slower.
2. Ask the RSK for your file's stage. An application under Krishi Bhagya moves through a few visible stages: received, site inspection done, sanctioned, work in progress, joint measurement done, DBT released. Ask specifically which of these stages your file is at, rather than only asking "has it been approved."
3. If the site inspection has not happened after a reasonable wait, ask the RSK when the inspecting officer is expected, since sanction cannot be issued before the site visit.
4. If you have a sanction order but no payment, the hold-up is almost always at verification or at the bank end. Check that your Aadhaar is seeded to the bank account you gave, and ask the RSK whether joint measurement of the completed work has been recorded yet, since DBT is released only after that measurement is filed.
5. Call the Raitha Call Centre on 1800 425 3553 or 8277003553 if the RSK visit is not practical. Keep your FRUITS ID and survey number ready when you call, since the helpline works off the same departmental records.
6. Escalate in writing if a sanctioned work goes unpaid for a long stretch. Take your case in person or by written application to the Assistant Director of Agriculture at the taluk office, and if that does not resolve it, to the Joint Director of Agriculture at the district office. Carry copies of the sanction order and the acknowledgement slip each time you escalate, since a fresh officer will ask for the paperwork again.
7. Check the official portal for the current year's guideline at raitamitra.karnataka.gov.in only for policy details such as this year's component list and subsidy share; it does not carry individual application status.

Because there is no digital tracking number, the acknowledgement slip from step 1 is effectively your only proof that you applied, so treat it the way you would treat a receipt and do not rely on memory of the date alone.