Fruit Planting Scheme (Madhya Pradesh)

What is the Fruit Planting Scheme in Madhya Pradesh?

Fruit Planting Scheme is the fruit area expansion component of the Horticulture and Food Processing Department, Government of Madhya Pradesh. According to the Khargone district Horticulture Department page for the scheme, "40 per cent grant is provided by the state government to the farmers" toward establishing a fruit orchard, and the benefit from selling the crop belongs entirely to the farmer.

The scheme exists because an orchard is a slow investment. A farmer who converts a hectare of soyabean or wheat land to mango or guava spends heavily in the first year on saplings, pit digging, manure, plant protection and fencing, and then waits three to five years for the first commercial crop. That gap; high early cost, no early income; is what keeps most small farmers out of horticulture even where the soil and market are right. Fruit Planting Scheme meets 40 per cent of the establishment cost so the first-year burden is survivable.

Madhya Pradesh has genuine agro-climatic depth for fruit. The Nimar belt around Khargone, Khandwa and Barwani is well suited to mango, and the state's guava, lemon and custard apple areas have expanded steadily. Drumstick, listed on the district page as munga, has become a favourite entry crop because it yields within a year and tolerates poorer soils.

Which fruit crops are covered?

The district Horticulture Department page names the following crops under the component:

Crop-wise unit costs, spacing and the number of plants sanctioned per hectare are fixed by the department for each year. The District Horticulture Office holds the current specification, and it is worth asking for it before you plan the block, because the grant is calculated against that specification rather than against whatever you actually spend.

Who is eligible for the Fruit Planting Scheme?

You can apply if:

• You are a farmer resident in Madhya Pradesh with cultivable land recorded in your own name in the khasra.
• You have an irrigation source, a well, tube well, canal or farm pond: since young fruit plants must be watered through their first summers.
• You are registered on MPFSTS, the Horticulture Department's farmer subsidy tracking system.
• You hold a bank account seeded with Aadhaar for the transfer.
• You can fund the establishment cost first, because the 40 per cent grant is reimbursed after verified planting.
• Your district has an unfilled area target for the crop that year.

The district page records that the programme extends to general, Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, below poverty line and senior citizen farmers on equal terms.

You cannot apply if:

• You are landless, or cultivate as a tenant with no land in your own name.
• Your plot has no assured irrigation; a purely rainfed site is not eligible for an orchard sanction because survival rates are too low.
• You planted the orchard before the sanction order was issued.
• You bought saplings from an unregistered nursery, which cannot be accepted at verification.
• Your bank account is not Aadhaar-seeded.
• The district target for that crop is exhausted for the financial year.

What documents are required?

How to apply for the Fruit Planting Scheme

1. Register on MPFSTS. Open mpfsts.mp.gov.in/mphd, the Madhya Pradesh Farmers Subsidy Tracking System of the Horticulture Department, and use नवीन पंजीयन (निःशुल्क) — New Registration, which is free.
2. Or apply at an online centre. The district page states that farmers register "through the department's online portal at designated online centres"; MPOnline kiosks and Common Service Centres file the same application with the same four documents.
3. Select the crop and area. Under the Horticulture Department's scheme list, choose fruit area expansion, then the specific crop, mango, guava, lemon, sapota, pomegranate, custard apple or drumstick, and the area in hectares. Targets are held crop by crop.
4. Enter land and irrigation details and upload documents.
5. Submit and print the acknowledgement with आवेदन प्रिंट (Application Print), and note the application number.
6. Watch the lottery list. Where applications exceed the crop's district target, the department selects beneficiaries by lottery and publishes the लाटरी द्वारा चयनित कृषक की सूची on the portal.
7. Collect the sanction order from the District Horticulture Office before buying any plant material.
8. Buy saplings from a registered nursery. The MPFSTS Vendors menu lists nursery registration and approved nurseries. Keep the bill in your own name.
9. Dig pits and plant to the sanctioned spacing, normally during the monsoon, which is the practical planting season across Madhya Pradesh.
10. Get the plantation inspected and geotagged by Horticulture Department staff, and receive the 40 per cent grant into your Aadhaar-seeded bank account.

How do I check my application status?

1. Open mpfsts.mp.gov.in/mphd and go to the Farmers menu.
2. Select आवेदन स्थिति (Application Status), enter your application number, or search by Aadhaar number if the number is lost.
3. Check the district lottery selected farmers list for the crop.
4. After planting, confirm with the Senior Horticulture Development Officer that the geotagged plantation verification has been uploaded, since payment follows that report.

What happens after the orchard is planted?

Fruit Planting Scheme is unusual among horticulture subsidies in that the asset it funds can die. Departmental verification therefore looks at the survival of the plantation, not merely the fact of planting, and grants for orchards are commonly released against verified survival rather than in one payment at planting. Ask the District Horticulture Office how many instalments apply to your sanction year.

Practically, that makes the first two summers the critical period. Gap filling of dead plants, a basin around each plant, mulching and; ideally. A drip line are what carry a young orchard through April and May in Nimar and Malwa. Farmers often apply for plastic mulching and drip under the department's protected cultivation and micro-irrigation components in the same year for this reason.

Why do fruit planting applications fail?

• Planting done before the sanction order was issued.
• Saplings bought from an unregistered nursery, so the bill is not accepted.
• Spacing or plant count different from the sanctioned specification, which reduces the measured grant.
• Poor survival at verification, which can cut the release.
• Land not recorded in the applicant's name.
• Bank account not Aadhaar-seeded.
• Not drawn in the lottery for an oversubscribed crop.

Key dates and the planting season

Fruit Planting Scheme has no fixed statewide last date. Targets are released for the financial year, April to March. The operational constraint is biological rather than administrative: fruit saplings are planted in the monsoon, so a farmer needs the application filed and the sanction in hand before the rains, roughly by May or June, to plant in the same year. Sanctions that arrive in the winter usually mean planting is deferred to the next monsoon.

Where to complain

• District Horticulture Officer, for sanction, nursery, verification and payment issues, and for the current crop-wise unit costs.
• MPFSTS helpdesk, mpfsts.helpdesk@mp.gov.in, for portal and status problems.
• Horticulture and Food Processing Department, Vindhyachal Bhawan, 6th Floor, Arera Hills, Bhopal.
• CM Helpline 181, for a trackable grievance routed to the district office.

MPFSTS registration is free and the grant reaches the farmer's own bank account. A nursery or agent who offers to arrange the sanction for a commission should be reported on 181.