Arka Vertical Garden Scheme

What is the Arka Vertical Garden scheme?

Arka Vertical Garden is a scheme of the State Horticulture Mission-Kerala, under the Department of Agriculture Development and Farmers' Welfare, that supplies subsidised vertical garden units to households across the state. The structure itself was designed and developed by the ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR), Bengaluru, and the Kerala rollout is funded under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY).

According to the State Horticulture Mission's scheme page, the aim is to popularise a user-friendly vertical garden structure so families can move towards self-sufficiency in safe-to-eat vegetables, supporting food and nutritional security. The scheme is aimed squarely at homes with little or no open ground, flats, small plots and urban and peri-urban houses: because the whole unit stands in one square metre.

What the beneficiary receives

• One Arka Vertical Garden structure with a base frame of one square metre.
• A central support with holders for 16 pots of different sizes fitted at four different height levels.
• 80 kilograms of enriched planting medium (coir pith), the system is soil-less.
• Seeds of crops including spinach, chilli, palak, amaranthus, brinjal and cluster beans.
• Plant nutrition and plant protection materials.
• A 25-litre water storage container mounted at the top, with drip laterals, micro tubes and drippers.
• Wheels on the frame, so the garden can be moved during the day according to where the sunlight falls.

How much does the Arka Vertical Garden cost and what is the subsidy?

The subsidy works out to just over 70 per cent of the unit cost. The beneficiary share of Rs 6,575 is remitted in advance, online, along with the application. This is different from most Kerala agriculture subsidies, where the beneficiary buys first and claims later. Nothing further is charged at the time of delivery or installation.

Who is eligible for the Arka Vertical Garden scheme?

You can apply if:

• You are a resident of Kerala.
• You did not receive an Arka Vertical Garden structure in the previous year's round.
• You have about one square metre of space that gets sunlight, and can be present when the unit is installed.

You are not eligible if:

• You live outside Kerala.
• You already received a unit under the scheme; one beneficiary is entitled to a single unit only.
• You want more than one unit for the same household.

The scheme has no income ceiling, no landholding requirement and no caste condition, which makes it one of the most open horticulture schemes in Kerala. Applicants do, however, take on two continuing obligations: to cooperate with periodic inspections by the State Horticulture Mission, and to use the structure only for the purposes set out in the project guidelines. Misuse can lead to a demand for refund of the subsidy amount.

What documents are required for the Arka Vertical Garden scheme?

The document list is deliberately short. What decides your application is not paperwork but how early you apply, because selection follows the order of submission.

How to apply for the Arka Vertical Garden scheme online

1. Register on ServicePlus. Open serviceonline.gov.in and click Register at the top right. Fill in your full name, email ID, mobile number, password, state and the captcha, and verify the email ID and mobile number by OTP if asked. The password must be at least 9 characters with one special character, one number, one lower-case and one upper-case letter, with no character repeated more than twice in a row.
2. Log in at serviceonline.gov.in with your login ID and password, and accept the Terms of Use.
3. Open the service. Expand the left pane, click Apply for Services, then View all available services, and filter by state (Kerala) or by the scheme name to find Arka Vertical Garden.
4. Fill the online application form with all mandatory fields and the captcha code, then submit.
5. Remit the beneficiary contribution of Rs 6,575 online, in advance, along with the application. Save the payment reference.
6. Wait for selection. The State Horticulture Mission-Kerala selects beneficiaries in the order in which applications were submitted and notifies those selected.
7. Be present at installation. When the structure is delivered, hand over the duly filled application form with your Aadhaar number, and the unit is installed and set up at your premises.

How do I check the status of my Arka Vertical Garden application?

1. Log in to serviceonline.gov.in with the same credentials you used to apply.
2. Open View Status of Application in the left menu and use the application reference number generated at submission.
3. Keep the payment transaction reference for the Rs 6,575, since queries about a submitted application are traced through it.
4. Call the State Horticulture Mission-Kerala at 0471-2330856 or 0471-2330857 if the status has not moved, or write to mdshmkerala@yahoo.co.in.

When can I apply for the Arka Vertical Garden?

The Arka Vertical Garden is offered in rounds tied to the RKVY funding of a particular year, not as a permanently open scheme. The round notified under RKVY 2022-23 carried a last date of 31 December 2024. If you are reading this outside an open round, the practical step is to watch shm.kerala.gov.in for a fresh notification rather than to submit an application that no round is running against. Applicants who received a unit in a previous year cannot apply in the next one.

Why Arka Vertical Garden applications fail

• Applying when no round is open — the scheme runs in funded batches.
• Applying late in an open round: selection is by order of submission, and a round can exhaust its target well before the closing date.
• Beneficiary share not paid, an application without the Rs 6,575 remitted in advance is incomplete.
• A previous unit already received: repeat applications from the same beneficiary are rejected.
• Not being present at installation, which delays or cancels delivery, since the form and Aadhaar number are handed over at that point.
• Misuse of the structure afterwards, which can trigger recovery of the Rs 15,525 subsidy.

What support is available after installation?

The State Horticulture Mission supplies the seeds, the enriched coir pith medium and the plant nutrition and protection materials with the unit, so the first crop cycle needs no extra purchase. After that, refills of coir pith, seeds and nutrients are the beneficiary's own cost. The drip system runs from the 25-litre overhead container, which has to be filled by hand, there is no pump, so a household can maintain the unit without a power connection.

Periodic inspections by the Mission are part of the scheme, and beneficiaries agree to cooperate with them when they apply. These visits check that the unit is installed, in use and growing vegetables as intended.

Where do I get help with the Arka Vertical Garden scheme?

• State Horticulture Mission-Kerala: 0471-2330856, 0471-2330857
• Email: mdshmkerala@yahoo.co.in
• Scheme page: shm.kerala.gov.in/arka-vertical-garden/
• Application portal: serviceonline.gov.in (ServicePlus)
• Your local Krishi Bhavan, which can help with the online submission if you do not have internet access at home.

Apart from the Rs 6,575 beneficiary share paid to the government online, there is no fee for applying. No agent can charge you to secure a unit, and priority is decided by the timestamp of your application, not by any recommendation.