Madhya Pradesh Fasal Vividhikaran Protsahan Yojana (Crop Diversification Encouragement Scheme)

What is the Madhya Pradesh crop diversification encouragement scheme?

Madhya Pradesh Fasal Vividhikaran Protsahan Yojana is a scheme of the Farmer Welfare and Agriculture Development Department (Kisan Kalyan tatha Krishi Vikas Vibhag), notified by a departmental order dated 6 May 2022, that pays for projects which move farmers out of wheat and paddy into other crops. It is easier to understand the scheme if you read it as an investment-promotion instrument rather than as a farmer subsidy. The state does not hand cash to a cultivator for sowing gram instead of wheat. It backs a company, firm, cooperative or farmer producer organisation that will go into a block, sign farmers up, supply the technical advice and inputs the new crop needs, and guarantee to buy the harvest.

The reasoning behind it is set out in the departmental order. Madhya Pradesh has pushed wheat and paddy area to a level that strains groundwater, encourages heavy fertiliser and pesticide use, and leaves the state with a very large procurement bill because both crops are bought at Minimum Support Price. Crops outside the MSP net: potato, onion, tomato and other vegetables, along with pulses, oilseeds and millets; need a buyer before a farmer will risk switching to them. The scheme's design answers exactly that problem: no buy-back commitment, no support.

Who is eligible under the crop diversification encouragement scheme?

Who can be a proposer:

• Companies, firms, cooperatives, farmer producer organisations and institutions willing to motivate farmers to sow alternative and more remunerative crops in place of paddy and wheat.
• Proposers who will provide hands-on technical guidance to the enrolled farmers on the agronomy of the new crop.
• Proposers who will execute a purchase agreement with the farmers, or arrange a documented tie-up with another company that will do the purchasing.
• Proposers able to show the districts, area, number of farmers and the exact government support they need, so the proposal can be costed.

Who cannot apply, and who is not eligible:

• Individual farmers cannot apply for a personal cash benefit under this scheme. A farmer's route in is to join a project that a company or FPO is running in the area, not to file a form for himself.
• Proposals with no buy-back commitment are outside the design of the scheme. Advisory-only or extension-only proposals do not meet the core condition.
• Proposals centred on wheat or paddy are excluded by definition, since these are the two crops the scheme exists to move farmers away from.
• Unregistered entities, a proposer must be a legally constituted company, firm, society, cooperative or FPO with accounts that can be examined.

This is the point readers most often get wrong. Search results and social media posts frequently describe the scheme as a per-hectare cash incentive for farmers, because neighbouring states run schemes of that shape. Haryana's Mera Pani Meri Virasat pays farmers an incentive per acre for leaving paddy, and Chhattisgarh's Krishak Unnati Yojana announced an incentive for alternative crops. Madhya Pradesh's crop diversification order works differently, through institutions. Do not expect a per-hectare credit in a bank account under this particular scheme.

What support does an approved project receive?

Madhya Pradesh has not published a fixed rate or ceiling, because the assistance is project based and settled proposal by proposal. The order allows the department to meet flexible categories of expenditure, including:

• Human resources, the field staff a company needs to reach and hand-hold farmers across the project villages.
• Crop marketing assistance; support for aggregation, grading and moving the diversified produce to a buyer.
• Specific agricultural inputs required for the diversification, with the agriculture department validating the inputs supplied as an incentive to the participating farmers.
• Capital equipment, in exceptional cases only, where the project genuinely cannot work without it.

Support under an approved project runs for a maximum of 3 years. After that window the commercial relationship between the company and its farmers is expected to sustain itself.

How to apply for the crop diversification encouragement scheme

1. Prepare a detailed project proposal covering the proposed activity, the districts and blocks to be covered, the crop or crops replacing wheat or paddy, the area in hectares, the number of farmers to be enrolled, the three-year timeline and the specific government support required.
2. Fix the buy-back arrangement first. Attach the purchase agreement you will sign with the enrolled farmers, or a documented tie-up with another company that has agreed to buy the produce. A proposal without this is unlikely to clear screening.
3. Assemble the corporate documents; registration certificate, PAN, GST registration and audited financial statements, normally for the last three years, showing that you can deliver the project and honour the purchase commitment.
4. Submit the proposal to the Directorate of Farmer Welfare and Agriculture Development in Bhopal, which is the receiving office named in the departmental order.
5. Present the proposal to the State Level Project Screening Committee, a six-member body chaired by the Chief Secretary of Madhya Pradesh with the Director of Agriculture as member secretary, which examines viability and the value the project offers the state.
6. Await clearance by the Cabinet Committee on Investment Promotion, which gives the final approval on projects the screening committee recommends.
7. Sign the sanction and start enrolment, keeping village-wise farmer lists, input distribution records and purchase records, since these are what the department will verify before releasing support.

How can a farmer take part?

A farmer in Madhya Pradesh who wants the benefit of this scheme should:

1. Ask the block Senior Agriculture Development Officer or the district Deputy Director of Agriculture whether any approved diversification project is operating in the block, and for which crop.
2. Join the project through the implementing company or FPO, signing the purchase agreement and noting the agreed price or price mechanism in writing.
3. Keep the paperwork. The enrolment form, the input receipt and the purchase agreement. If the buyer does not lift the produce as agreed, that agreement is the document the district agriculture office can act on.
4. Register separately for procurement schemes that do pay farmers directly. Registration on mpeuparjan.nic.in covers MSP procurement and slot booking for wheat, paddy, gram, lentil and mustard, and the Mukhyamantri Krishak Fasal Uparjan Sahayata Yojana of the Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection Department carries the state's price-difference and bonus payments, including a reported bonus of Rs 600 per quintal over MSP on summer urad.

Which crops does the scheme target?

The departmental order draws the boundary at wheat and paddy: everything else is in scope. In practice the crops most often named for Madhya Pradesh diversification are:

• Pulses — gram, lentil, urad, moong, tur.
• Oilseeds; soybean, mustard, groundnut, sesame.
• Millets and coarse cereals: jowar, bajra, kodo-kutki.
• Horticulture crops outside the MSP framework: potato, onion, tomato and other vegetables, which the order specifically mentions.

Crops outside the MSP net are the ones most in need of an assured buyer, which is why the buy-back condition sits at the centre of the scheme.

Common reasons proposals do not get through

• No credible purchase commitment. A letter of intent that binds nobody will not carry the proposal past screening.
• Coverage too thin to matter. A project with a handful of farmers in one village is hard to justify at Chief Secretary level; the committee is looking for area and farmer numbers that shift cropping pattern.
• Financial capacity not demonstrated. Audited accounts that do not support the promised buy-back volume undermine the whole proposal.
• Overlap with an existing sanctioned project in the same block for the same crop.
• Support sought for items outside the flexible list, particularly large capital equipment, which the order allows only in exceptional cases.

Help and grievance redressal

• Directorate of Farmer Welfare and Agriculture Development, Bhopal. The office that receives and processes proposals under this scheme.
• District Deputy Director of Agriculture, for farmers asking whether a project is running in their block and for complaints about a buyer who fails to purchase as agreed.
• Kisan Call Centre 1800-180-1551, for general agricultural queries.
• CM Helpline, for a formal state grievance where a district office does not respond.

Farmers should be cautious of anyone who offers, for a fee, to enrol them in a "crop diversification subsidy". The scheme does not pay individuals, and no enrolment fee is part of any approved project.