Distribution of Horticulture Kit to Urban and Rural Areas

What is the Puducherry horticulture kit scheme?

Distribution of Horticulture Kit to Urban and Rural Areas is a homestead gardening component of the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Union Territory of Puducherry, run by the Office of the Additional Director of Agriculture (Horticulture) at the Botanical Garden, Puducherry. The Department distributes a horticulture kit worth Rs 3,000 per kit at a 75% subsidy, to horticulture growers in both rural and urban areas, for homestead and backyard growing, during the Aadipattam and Thaipattam seasons.

Most of Puducherry's agriculture schemes are built around land: 1.5 acres under a tubewell command area, a Farmers Identity Card carrying survey numbers, a revenue certificate from a Deputy Tahsildar. This one is not. Its eligibility line reads simply "all horticulture growers of rural and urban areas", and its target is the homestead and the backyard. In a territory where the urban share of the population is high and holdings are small, that is a deliberate choice: it extends the Department's horticulture programme to households that will never appear on a land record but will happily grow vegetables and fruit behind the house.

The kit is one item in a wider horticulture package administered from the Botanical Garden office. The others include the production incentive for horticulture crops: Rs 12,250 for mango, Rs 18,750 per season for winter vegetables, Rs 12,500 a year for tapioca, among other rates, and a free minikit component described below.

What exactly do you receive?

The published pattern is a kit valued at Rs 3,000, subsidised at 75%, distributed for homestead and backyard use through the Office of the Additional Director of Agriculture (Horticulture). The grower meets the remaining share of the kit value. The Department fixes the contents of the kit for each season's distribution rather than publishing a permanent packing list, so the practical step for an applicant is to ask the Agricultural Officer at the Uzhavar Udhaviyagam what the current season's kit contains before applying.

Running alongside it is a second, smaller and completely free component under the same horticulture programme: distribution of vegetable seed minikits and fruit minikits worth Rs 250 at 100% subsidy. Its eligibility is identical — all horticulture growers of rural and urban areas, and its distribution route is the same, through the Uzhavar Udhaviyagams and the Office of the Additional Director of Agriculture (Horticulture), during Aadipattam and Thaipattam. A household that finds the Rs 3,000 kit more than it needs should ask about the Rs 250 minikit instead.

Who is eligible for the horticulture kit?

You can apply if:

• You are a horticulture grower in a rural or urban area of the Union Territory of Puducherry. That includes growing on a homestead plot or in a backyard.
• You are able to receive and use the kit in the season for which it is distributed, during Aadipattam or Thaipattam.
• You can meet the grower's share of the Rs 3,000 kit value, the subsidy being 75%.

You are not eligible if:

• You are not growing horticulture crops at all. The kit is for growers, not a general household distribution.
• You are outside the Union Territory of Puducherry.
• You apply outside the distribution season. Kits move during Aadipattam and Thaipattam, and a form filed between those windows waits for the next one.
• You have already received a kit in the same distribution cycle. Kits are issued per grower per season, and a second claim within a cycle is not entertained.

What documents are required?

How to apply for the horticulture kit

1. Ask about the season's distribution. Kits move during Aadipattam and Thaipattam, so check with the Agricultural Officer at your Uzhavar Udhaviyagam or the Office of the Additional Director of Agriculture (Horticulture) when the next round opens and what the kit contains.
2. Collect the prescribed form during office hours, free of cost, from the Agricultural Officer at the Uzhavar Udhaviyagam or from the Office of the Additional Director of Agriculture (Horticulture), Botanical Garden, Puducherry 605 001.
3. Fill in every mandatory field, paste the passport-sized photograph and sign across it where the form asks, and attach self-attested copies of the supporting documents.
4. Submit the duly filled and signed form with the documents to the same authority.
5. Collect your acknowledgement. On receipt, the office makes the entry in its application receipt register and assigns a unique number that identifies you in all further references and serves as the acknowledgement of receipt.
6. Collect the kit when the season's distribution is announced, paying the grower's share of the kit value at that point.

How do I check the status of my application?

Quote the unique number issued at the time of submission and follow up with the Agricultural Officer at the Uzhavar Udhaviyagam where you filed, or with the Office of the Additional Director of Agriculture (Horticulture). Beneficiary lists under the Department's horticulture components are placed for social auditing at the horticulture wing and the Uzhavar Uthaviyagams, and the final list is displayed on the notice board of the Uzhavar Uthaviyagams, so the notice board is the quickest place to confirm your name.

Because this is a physical distribution rather than a bank transfer, there is no payment status to track. The practical question is only whether your name is on the list for the current season's distribution and when the kits arrive at your Uzhavar Udhaviyagam.

Why applications get rejected, and how to fix them

• Filed outside the Aadipattam or Thaipattam window. File ahead of the season; a form submitted between windows simply waits.
• No proof of residence in Puducherry, which leaves the applicant outside the stated coverage of rural and urban areas of the Union Territory.
• Demand exceeding the season's allocation. Kits are distributed against a fixed number for each cycle, so the seniority of your entry in the receipt register matters. Applying early in the window is the only real remedy.
• Repeat claim within the same cycle, where a household has already drawn a kit.
• Unable to pay the grower's share at the point of distribution. If the Rs 3,000 kit is beyond reach, ask instead about the Rs 250 vegetable seed and fruit minikit at 100% subsidy, which costs the grower nothing.
• Form incomplete or unsigned, or the photograph missing, which sends the file back before it reaches the register.

Where to raise a grievance

The Department's published grievance officer for horticulture is the Additional Director of Agriculture (Horticulture), Botanical Garden, Puducherry 605 001, on 0413-2228218. The Deputy Director of Agriculture (Horticulture) can be reached on 0413-2220130, and the Director of Agriculture on 0413-2336977 or by email at diragri[dot]py[at]gov[dot]in.

Growers in the other regions should approach the Additional Director of Agriculture, Karaikal, on 04368-230679, the Deputy Director of Agriculture, Mahe, on 0490-2334525, or the Deputy Director of Agriculture, Yanam, on 0884-2321922.

The Department's citizen's charter, grievance redress note and list of responsibility centres are published on agri.py.gov.in. There is no fee for the application form, and the Department cautions that scheme patterns are subject to revision without notice, so confirm the current kit value and subsidy rate with the Additional Director of Agriculture (Horticulture) before you plan around them.