Integrated Horticultural Development Program Through Diversification of Agriculture

What is the Integrated Horticultural Development Program Through Diversification of Agriculture?

Integrated Horticultural Development Program Through Diversification of Agriculture, usually shortened to IHDPDA, is a multi-component farm subsidy programme of the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Union Territory of Puducherry. The programme is implemented principally in the Mahe region, the Union Territory's enclave on the Malabar coast surrounded by Kerala, and the Department's own standard operating procedure for it is published as the IHDP Mahe SOP.

Mahe's agriculture looks nothing like the paddy-and-groundnut belt of the Puducherry and Karaikal regions. It is a small, densely settled, high-rainfall tract dominated by coconut, homestead horticulture and small mixed holdings. IHDPDA is built for that: rather than one large subsidy, it offers nine separate components covering the practical needs of a smallholder horticulturist, from organic manure for coconut palms through to a biogas unit that turns farm waste into cooking fuel and slurry.

All nine components are paid by Direct Benefit Transfer into the farmer's bank account. Nothing is distributed in kind.

What does IHDPDA pay for?

According to the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, the pattern of assistance is:

Two components sit at 75%, and both are inputs that directly determine yield in a coconut-and-vegetable system: organic manure for the palms, and planting material and seed. The Department has deliberately made those the cheapest for the farmer to adopt.

The mud pots or cement pots component is easy to overlook but practically useful in Mahe, where pot irrigation and pot-based nursery raising are common on small plots. The biogas unit at 50% addresses both a fuel need and a manure need at once, since the digested slurry returns to the garden.

Compensation for disease-affected or unproductive palms at Rs 250 per palm matches the rate the Department publishes territory-wide for cutting, removal and replanting of disease-affected palms. Root wilt and bud rot are persistent problems in high-rainfall coconut tracts, and the compensation is intended to make removal of an infected palm a decision the farmer can afford to take promptly rather than postpone.

The subsidy under each component is determined on a pro-rata basis as per the pattern of assistance, applied to the quantity or area the beneficiary actually takes up.

Who is eligible for IHDPDA?

You can apply if:

• You are a farmer. The eligibility condition published by the Department is simply that all farmers are eligible. There is no caste, income or land-ceiling bar.
• You hold a Farmers Identity Card carrying your survey numbers and the extent of your holding, or you can produce an authenticated land document in its place.
• You are a tenant cultivating land owned by a religious institution, Wakf, Mutt, Trust or Municipality and you hold the institution's letter of consent together with a cultivation certificate.

You cannot apply if:

• You have neither a Farmers Identity Card nor an authenticated land document such as a sale deed, partition deed, gift deed or will. Without one of these the Department cannot establish your holding and the application is not eligible.
• You are a tenant without both the consent letter from the institution's authority and a cultivation certificate from the land owner or from the Agriculture or Revenue Department after joint verification.
• You are not cultivating land at all. The programme funds inputs and works on a holding, so a non-cultivator has nothing to claim against.

What documents are required?

How to apply for IHDPDA

1. Visit the office during working hours. Go to the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, your Uzhavar Udhaviyagam (Farmers' Help Centre), or the Agricultural Officer, Mahe, and request a hard copy of the prescribed application form from the concerned authority. The horticulture application form is also published on agri.py.gov.in.
2. Fill in all the mandatory fields, paste the passport-sized photograph and sign across it where required, and state clearly which of the nine components you are applying for, with the quantity, number of palms or area involved in each case.
3. Attach self-attested copies of the Farmers Identity Card or land document and, if you are a tenant, the institution's consent letter and the cultivation certificate. Include the bank account details for the DBT credit.
4. Submit the duly filled and signed form with the documents to the concerned authority at the same office.
5. Note the unique number assigned on receipt. The office makes the entries in its application receipt register and issues a unique number that identifies your file in all further references and serves as your acknowledgement.
6. Keep the holding available for inspection. The Agricultural Officer (Mahe) maintains a separate register in the prescribed format for the receipt of applications and conducts periodic field inspections to verify the progress of cultivation.

How are beneficiaries selected and the list approved?

The programme follows the Department's published social-audit route. A provisional list of beneficiaries is displayed for public scrutiny, and objections may be filed during the notice period before the list is finalised. The final list is approved by the Director of Agriculture and the Secretary to Government (Agriculture), which is a higher level of approval than several other Puducherry horticulture components require.

The eligible subsidy is then released to the beneficiary's account in DBT mode after expenditure sanction is obtained as per norms.

How do I check the status of my application?

Quote the unique number issued at the counter and follow up with the Agricultural Officer, Mahe, or at the Uzhavar Udhaviyagam where you filed. The separate register maintained by the Agricultural Officer (Mahe) is the record of receipt and progress for this programme. Watch for the provisional beneficiary list during the objection window if you want to confirm your name has been carried forward.

If a component has been sanctioned but no DBT credit has appeared, verify the bank account number and IFSC recorded on the application before escalating.

Why applications get rejected or payments stall

• No Farmers Identity Card and no land document. One or the other is essential to establish the holding.
• Component and quantity not specified. An application that does not state which of the nine components is being claimed, and for how much area, quantity or how many palms, cannot be assessed on the pro-rata scale.
• Tenant application incomplete — missing either the institution's consent letter or the cultivation certificate.
• Work carried out before sanction and inspection, leaving nothing for the Agricultural Officer to verify at the field visit.
• Bank account inactive or wrongly recorded, which blocks the DBT credit after sanction.
• Claim outside the published pattern of assistance, for example seeking more than 75% on organic manures or more than Rs 250 per disease-affected palm.

Where to raise a grievance

Mahe applicants should first approach the Agricultural Officer, Mahe, whose contact details are published on the Department's email contacts page. For escalation, contact the Director of Agriculture, Puducherry on 0413-2336977 or by email at diragri[dot]py[at]gov[dot]in. The Additional Director of Agriculture (Horticulture) is the responsible officer for the horticulture components.

The Department publishes its citizen's charter, grievance redressal note and responsibility-centre list on agri.py.gov.in, alongside the IHDP Mahe standard operating procedure. No fee is charged for the application form or for registration under this programme, and the Department notes that its schemes are subject to change without notice depending on the guidelines prescribed by the Government.