Rajasthan Tarbandi Yojana (Farm Fencing Subsidy Scheme)

What is the Rajasthan Tarbandi Yojana?

Rajasthan Tarbandi Yojana is a farm fencing subsidy scheme run by the Agriculture Department, Government of Rajasthan, through the Raj Kisan Sathi portal. The scheme, known locally simply as tarbandi (literally "wiring"), pays a share of the cost of erecting barbed wire or chain-link fencing around cultivable agricultural land so that standing crops are protected from stray cattle, nilgai, wild boar and other roaming animals.

Crop damage by stray animals is one of the largest uninsured losses a Rajasthan farmer carries. Unlike drought or hail, it is not a one-season event: the same herd returns night after night, and a farmer without fencing ends up guarding the field personally through the season. Rajasthan Tarbandi Yojana treats fencing as a capital input, like a pump set or a drip system, and subsidises it under the state's agriculture input assistance framework rather than as disaster relief.

According to the Agriculture Department, the subsidy is delivered on a cost-sharing basis. The department fixes a per-running-metre cost norm, applies a subsidy percentage to it, and caps the total number of running metres any one applicant may claim. Small and marginal farmers receive a higher percentage than general-category farmers. Because the cost norm, the percentage and the ceiling are all revised in the department's annual scheme guidelines, the safest practice is to read the current-year rate on rajkisan.rajasthan.gov.in: or ask at your nearest Krishi Vigyan Kendra or Panchayat Samiti agriculture office; before you buy a single roll of wire.

How the scheme works in outline

• The farmer applies online, before any fencing is built.
• The Agriculture Department verifies the land record and issues an administrative sanction (pre-approval).
• The farmer builds the fencing and uploads purchase bills.
• An Agriculture Supervisor or Assistant Agriculture Officer physically inspects and measures the fencing.
• The subsidy is released to the farmer's Aadhaar-seeded bank account by Direct Benefit Transfer.

Who is eligible for the Tarbandi scheme?

You can apply if:

• You are a farmer resident in Rajasthan with a valid Jan Aadhaar record.
• You hold cultivable agricultural land in your own name in Rajasthan, shown in a current jamabandi.
• The land you want to fence is a contiguous block, not scattered fragments.
• You have an active bank account seeded with your Aadhaar number for DBT.
• You have not previously drawn Tarbandi subsidy for the same field.

You cannot apply if:

• You farm land that is not recorded in your name — tenants, sharecroppers, batai farmers and agricultural labourers are not eligible, because the land record is the basis of the sanction.
• Your holding is smaller than the minimum contiguous area the department prescribes for the current year, and you are not part of a joint or community application that meets it.
• You have already received a fencing subsidy for the same boundary under this or any other state or central scheme.
• You built the fencing before receiving administrative sanction.
• The land in question is not agricultural land in the revenue record.

Farmers whose individual holding falls below the threshold are not shut out. The Agriculture Department permits group applications, where several neighbouring farmers fence one contiguous block jointly. Each farmer in the group files a separate application against their own Jan Aadhaar and jamabandi, and the block is sanctioned and measured as a single unit. In many districts this is the ordinary route for smallholders, and the local Agriculture Supervisor will help assemble the group.

What documents are required for Tarbandi Yojana?

Keep the original bills. Rajasthan's agriculture offices accept GST invoices from a registered dealer; loose handwritten slips without a dealer name are the single most common reason a completion claim is sent back for correction.

How to apply for Tarbandi subsidy online

1. Open the Rajasthan Single Sign On portal at sso.rajasthan.gov.in and log in with your SSO ID. If you do not have one, register using your Jan Aadhaar number, Bhamashah number or Google account.
2. From the list of applications inside SSO, select Raj Kisan to reach the Raj Kisan Sathi portal at rajkisan.rajasthan.gov.in.
3. Choose Farmer as the applicant type, then open the application form for the fencing (tarbandi) component under the Agriculture Department's scheme list.
4. Enter your Jan Aadhaar number and select your name from the family members listed, so your personal details are pulled in automatically.
5. Fill in your land details: district, tehsil, village, khasra number, area of the block and the length of fencing in running metres you propose to build.
6. Upload the scanned jamabandi, the field map, your bank passbook page and, if you are claiming the small or marginal farmer rate, the supporting certificate.
7. Submit the form and save the application number shown on the acknowledgement screen. You will need it for every later step.
8. Wait for the administrative sanction message. Do not start fencing before it arrives.
9. After building the fencing, log back in, open the same application, and upload your purchase bills and photographs to file the completion claim.
10. Attend the physical verification when the Agriculture Supervisor visits, and keep the original bills available for inspection.

How to apply for Tarbandi subsidy offline

1. Visit your nearest e-Mitra kiosk with your Jan Aadhaar card, Aadhaar card, jamabandi, field map and bank passbook.
2. Ask the operator to file a Raj Kisan Sathi application under the fencing component. The operator files it through the same online system on your behalf.
3. Pay only the government-notified e-Mitra service charge, and collect the printed receipt carrying your application number.
4. For help with the land record or the map, approach the Agriculture Supervisor or Assistant Agriculture Officer at your Panchayat Samiti, or the Assistant Director of Agriculture at the district headquarters.

Rajasthan does not run a parallel paper channel for this scheme. The e-Mitra route is simply assisted online filing. Any office that asks you to submit a handwritten application "instead of" the portal entry is not following the department's process.

How do I check my Tarbandi application status?

1. Log in to sso.rajasthan.gov.in and open the Raj Kisan application.
2. Select the application tracking or "Application Status" option.
3. Enter your application number and submit.

The status screen shows which stage your file has reached: pending at the Agriculture Supervisor, sanctioned, awaiting completion claim, verified, or paid. You can also check whether your name appears in the department's beneficiary list for the year on the Jan Soochna Portal at jansoochna.rajasthan.gov.in, which publishes agriculture scheme beneficiaries district by district.

Why Tarbandi applications get rejected

• Fencing built before sanction. The most common rejection. Pre-approval is not a formality; the inspecting officer records the sanction date.
• Stale jamabandi. A record of rights older than the permitted window is returned for a fresh copy.
• Land not in the applicant's name. Applications filed on a father's or brother's khasra without a mutation are rejected.
• Non-contiguous plots. Running metres claimed across separated fields do not qualify as one boundary.
• Bank account not Aadhaar-seeded, so the DBT payment fails even after sanction.
• Bills without a registered dealer's details, or bills dated before the sanction.
• District target exhausted. Rajasthan allocates physical targets per district each financial year; once they are filled, later applications are carried forward or closed rather than sanctioned.
• Duplicate claim for a boundary already subsidised in an earlier year.

Most of these are fixable. A returned application can normally be corrected and resubmitted through the same Raj Kisan Sathi login rather than filed fresh, so check the remark recorded against your application number before starting over.

What are the key dates for Tarbandi Yojana?

Rajasthan Tarbandi Yojana runs on the financial year, from 1 April to 31 March. The Agriculture Department issues district-wise physical and financial targets at the start of the year, and applications are sanctioned against those targets in order. There is no single advertised last date; instead, the practical deadline is the point at which your district's target is exhausted. Farmers who apply early in the financial year, soon after the rabi harvest, generally get sanctioned in the same year, while late applications often roll into the next year's target.

Where do I complain if my Tarbandi subsidy is stuck?

• Raj Kisan Sathi help centres: 0141-2927047 and 0141-2922613.
• Nodal officer, Agriculture Department: Additional Director of Agriculture (Extension), Pant Krishi Bhawan, Janpath, Jaipur 302005, telephone 0141-2227849, email adldir.ext.agri@rajasthan.gov.in.
• District route: the Joint Director or Deputy Director of Agriculture at the district headquarters handles sanction and verification disputes.
• Rajasthan Sampark: the state grievance portal at sampark.rajasthan.gov.in, helpline 181, for complaints that the department has not resolved.
• Jan Soochna Portal: 1800-180-6127 or toll free 1064 for information about whether your name appears in the published beneficiary list.

Applying for Tarbandi subsidy is free. No official will ask for your SSO password or your Aadhaar OTP, and no commission is payable to anyone for a sanction.