Fruit Development Scheme — Meghalaya

What is the Fruit Development Scheme in Meghalaya?

The Fruit Development Scheme is a State Plan scheme of the Directorate of Horticulture under the Department of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare, Government of Meghalaya. According to the Department's official FAQ on horticulture schemes, its key objective is to promote fruit cultivation and citrus rejuvenation of senile orchards by providing inputs and infrastructure support along with training and capacity building for farmers.

Meghalaya's fruit basket is distinctive, Khasi mandarin orange, pineapple, plum, peach, pear, kiwi, strawberry and banana all grow well across its elevation range. The constraint is rarely climate. It is the cost and quality of planting material, the age of existing orchards, and the absence of the structures that creeper fruits need. The Fruit Development Scheme is built around those three gaps rather than around cash transfers.

The four components

1. Planting material, tools and implements, good quality planting material together with horticultural tools and implements, supplied at subsidised rates to promote fruit cultivation.
2. Citrus rejuvenation, organic-based plant protection measures for the citrus rejuvenation programme of senile orchards.
3. Permanent trellis. A permanent trellis system for creeper fruit plants such as kiwi and grape, with planting and erection done by the farmers themselves.
4. Training and capacity building of farmers.

What is the pattern of assistance?

The Directorate of Horticulture publishes the subsidy pattern component by component:

Two points are worth reading carefully. First, the planting material component is a subsidised sale, not a free distribution, the farmer pays half the cost and takes delivery of certified material rather than receiving money. Second, the trellis assistance is capped by area, not by rupee value, at 500 sqm per beneficiary, and the labour of erecting it stays with the farmer.

Who is eligible for the Fruit Development Scheme?

You can apply if:

• You are a bona fide farmer engaged in agriculture in Meghalaya.
• You possess own or leased land of 0.2 hectare or more. Leased land counts equally with owned land, which matters in Meghalaya where much land is held under community and clan tenure rather than individual title.
• You intend to take up fruit cultivation, rejuvenate an existing citrus orchard, or put up a trellis for creeper fruit.

You are not eligible and cannot apply if:

• Your holding is below 0.2 hectare. The 0.2 hectare floor is the scheme's own stated criterion. Farmers below it should look at the Floriculture Development Scheme, which the same FAQ opens to all bona fide farmers, or at the Development and Maintenance of Orchard cum Horti Nurseries component, which sets a lower floor of 200 sqm.
• You are not a farmer. A trader, nursery reseller or contractor buying subsidised planting material for resale does not meet the bona fide farmer test.
• You want cash instead of material. Except for the citrus rejuvenation component, the scheme delivers subsidised inputs and structures, not a bank transfer.
• You are applying for vegetables, tubers, spices, tea, plantation crops or flowers. Each of these has its own separate State Plan scheme in Meghalaya. The Vegetable Development Scheme, Tuber Development Scheme, Spice Development Scheme, Tea Development Scheme, Plantation Crop Development Scheme and Floriculture Development Scheme respectively.

What documents are required?

The Department deliberately keeps the paperwork light. The FAQ's own instruction is that bona fide farmers apply in plain paper; there is no prescribed form to hunt for and no fee.

How to apply for the Fruit Development Scheme

1. Identify your field officer. For most farmers this is the Horticulture Development Officer (HDO) of the Community Development Block. The Horticulture Circle office and the District Horticulture Officer (DHO) are the two other valid points of entry.
2. Write a plain-paper application stating your name, village, CD Block, the area and tenure of your land, what you are asking for — planting material, tools, citrus rejuvenation or trellis, and the fruit crop you intend to grow.
3. Attach proof of land, own or leased, showing at least 0.2 hectare, and a copy of an identity document.
4. Submit it to the HDO, Horticulture Circle or DHO and ask for acknowledgement, noting the date. Because selection is first come, first served, the date on your application is what protects your place.
5. Follow up before the planting season. Planting material is raised in government farms and nurseries and is finite in any given year, so a farmer who applies late in the season may be carried to the next cycle.
6. Collect the subsidised material against payment of your 50 per cent share, or arrange the site inspection where citrus rejuvenation or trellis assistance has been sanctioned.

How are beneficiaries selected?

The Directorate of Horticulture states the selection procedure in one line: bona fide farmers on a first come, first served basis. There is no income ceiling, no scoring, no caste or gender reservation and no lottery attached to this scheme.

Practically, this means three things for a Meghalaya farmer. Apply early in the year, before nursery stock is committed. Apply through your own block's HDO rather than directly at the Directorate, because the block-level register is what the allocation is drawn from. And ask the HDO what planting material is actually available for your elevation and crop this season. The scheme is supply-limited, and matching your request to available stock is faster than insisting on a variety the nursery has not raised.

Where does the planting material come from?

Meghalaya raises its own planting material rather than buying it in. A companion State Plan scheme, Development and Maintenance of Orchard cum Horti Nurseries, exists for the production and multiplication of good quality, high-yielding, disease-free planting material in government farms for sale through the District Horticulture Officer, and for introducing new high-yielding mother plant varieties suited to different areas of the State.

This is why the Fruit Development Scheme subsidises a sale rather than reimbursing a farmer's purchase from a private nursery. The Department is distributing material it has itself certified, which is also the mechanism that keeps citrus greening and other orchard diseases from spreading through uncertified stock.

What if I need more than the State Plan scheme offers?

A Meghalaya fruit grower who needs larger infrastructure. A water harvesting unit, a poly-house, protected cultivation, micro irrigation or post-harvest handling: should look at the centrally sponsored Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) and its sub-scheme Horticulture Mission for North East and Himalayan Region (HMNEH), run through the same District Horticulture Officers and Horticulture Development Officers, with 50 per cent assistance for planting material production, area expansion, water harvesting and protected cultivation.

For post-harvest handling of the fruit itself, the Agricultural Marketing Scheme offers a 50 per cent subsidy on metallic bins, plastic crates, display racks, beam scales, packaging material and digital weighing machines. For processing, the Fruit Processing Scheme under the Directorate of Fruit Processing offers training and technical support and runs the State's "Meg" branded squashes, jams, jellies, canned fruits and juices.

Because all of these are administered by the same field officers, a single conversation with your District Horticulture Officer can cover the whole ladder.

Help and contacts

• District Horticulture Officer (DHO) of your district, the primary contact named by the Department for this scheme.
• Horticulture Development Officer (HDO) of your CD Block, the officer who receives the plain-paper application.
• Directorate of Horticulture, Shillong, headquarters and district contact lists are published on megagriculture.gov.in under Contacts.
• Scheme information: the Department's FAQ on Horticulture Schemes, in English, and the Khasi version Ki mat jingkylli kiba donkam ha kaba iadei bad ki skhim jong ka Horticulture, both downloadable from megagriculture.gov.in.

There is no fee to apply. The only money a farmer pays under this scheme is the farmer's own share of the subsidised price of planting material, tools and implements.