Scheme for Assistance on Purchase of Smartphone by the Farmers

What is the Gujarat smartphone assistance scheme for farmers?

The Scheme for Assistance on Purchase of Smartphone by the Farmers, widely known in Gujarat as Smartphone Sahay Yojana or Khedut Mobile Sahay Yojana, is a state-funded scheme of the Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Cooperation Department, Government of Gujarat. The scheme reimburses part of the cost of a smartphone bought by a land-holding farmer, so that the farmer can use digital agriculture services on their own device.

According to the Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Cooperation Department, the assistance is 40% of the smartphone purchase price or Rs 6,000, whichever is lower. The subsidy is a one-time benefit per farmer, credited by Direct Benefit Transfer after the purchase invoice is verified.

The reasoning behind the scheme is practical rather than symbolic. Almost every service the Gujarat agriculture ecosystem now runs is on a phone: the iKhedut portal itself for subsidy applications, weather advisories and cyclone warnings for Saurashtra and Kutch, pest and disease alerts, mandi price feeds, soil health card records, crop insurance intimation, and Kisan Credit Card servicing. A farmer without a smartphone is cut off from all of them and dependent on an intermediary to file anything.

Key objectives

• Put a smartphone in the hands of land-holding farmers so they can use state and central digital agriculture services directly.
• Reduce dependence on agents and middlemen for filing subsidy applications.
• Improve reach of weather forecasts, pest alerts and market price information.
• Support Gujarat's shift towards paperless, self-service farm scheme delivery through iKhedut 2.0.

Main features

• One-time subsidy per farmer, not an annual payment.
• Reimbursement model: the farmer buys the phone, then claims.
• Delivered fully through iKhedut; no scheme-specific paper application form.
• Announced with a defined applicant target for the year — roughly 25,000 farmers in the 2025-26 round — and closed once the sanctioned number is reached.

Who is eligible for the smartphone assistance scheme?

You are eligible if:

• You are a farmer resident in Gujarat.
• Agricultural land is recorded in your own name on the 7/12 extract.
• You hold an Aadhaar number and a bank account in your own name.
• You buy a new smartphone with a GST invoice in your own name.
• You have not previously claimed this smartphone assistance.

You cannot apply if:

• Your name does not appear on a 7/12 land record — landless agricultural labourers, tenant farmers and sharecroppers are not eligible.
• You already received the smartphone subsidy in an earlier round.
• Your invoice is in a family member's name, or is for a second-hand handset.
• The invoice has no IMEI number or no GST details.
• You apply after the announced window closes, or after the sanctioned number of beneficiaries for the year has been reached.

Only one claim is allowed per land holding, so a husband and wife recorded jointly on the same survey number cannot both draw the benefit. Where land is held jointly, the taluka office normally asks for a written consent from the other holders identifying which one is claiming.

What documents are required for the smartphone subsidy?

Take one self-attested photocopy set to the taluka office and keep the original invoice safe — it is the document the whole claim rests on.

How to apply for the smartphone assistance scheme

1. Watch ikhedut.gujarat.gov.in for the announcement of the smartphone application window. In 2025-26 the window ran from 21 June 2025 to 20 July
2. Buy a new smartphone from any dealer and obtain a GST invoice in your own name showing the model and IMEI number.
3. On the portal, open Schemes, then Agriculture Schemes (Khetivadi ni Yojanao), and select the smartphone assistance entry.
4. Choose registered or not registered applicant. A first-time applicant selects "not registered" and completes the farmer registration.
5. Fill the form with Aadhaar number, mobile number, district, taluka, village, survey number, land area, invoice details and bank account details.
6. Confirm and submit. Note the application number shown on screen; the form cannot be edited after confirmation.
7. Print the submitted application, sign it, attach the invoice and the other documents, and submit the set to your taluka agriculture office before the date the portal states.
8. After verification, the subsidy is credited to your bank account by DBT.

How to apply without internet access

1. Go to your village e-Gram centre or Village Computer Entrepreneur (VCE), who files iKhedut applications for farmers during open windows.
2. Alternatively, visit the taluka agriculture office or a common service centre and ask the staff to enter the application.
3. Carry your Aadhaar card, 7/12 extract, bank passbook and the smartphone invoice — the form cannot be completed without those numbers.

How much benefit does the scheme provide?

The scheme pays 40% of the smartphone price, capped at Rs 6,000. Worked examples make the cap easy to read:

• Phone priced Rs 8,000 → subsidy Rs 3,200.
• Phone priced Rs 12,000 → subsidy Rs 4,800.
• Phone priced Rs 15,000 → subsidy Rs 6,000 (the cap is reached).
• Phone priced Rs 25,000 → subsidy still Rs 6,000, not Rs 10,000.

Because of the cap, a phone costing about Rs 15,000 extracts the maximum benefit. There is no data-pack, accessory or insurance component in the scheme; the subsidy covers the handset only.

How to check your application status

1. Open the Application Status page on ikhedut.gujarat.gov.in.
2. Enter your application number and the verifying detail requested.
3. The screen shows the stage: submitted, document verification at taluka, approved, or payment released.
4. If the status has not moved for several weeks while the window is still active, contact the taluka agriculture office with your application number.

Common reasons the smartphone claim is rejected

• Printed application not submitted to the taluka office. Filing online alone does not complete the claim.
• Invoice in someone else's name, most often a son's or spouse's.
• Missing IMEI number on the invoice, so the handset cannot be identified.
• Bank account not in the applicant's own name, or not Aadhaar-seeded, so DBT fails.
• Applicant not on the 7/12 record, which disqualifies the claim outright.
• Target exhausted — applications beyond the sanctioned number for the year lapse even if they are otherwise correct.

A failed DBT because of a wrong IFSC or an inactive account can usually be fixed by giving corrected bank details to the taluka office; a wrong-name invoice cannot be fixed after purchase.

Key dates and grievance route

Gujarat opens iKhedut scheme windows financial year by financial year. The smartphone window for 2025-26 was open from 21 June 2025 to 20 July 2025, and the department has not published a standing year-round deadline. Farmers should check the iKhedut home page around the start of the kharif season.

For complaints, raise the issue first with the Gram Sevak or Vistaran Adhikari, then the Taluka Agriculture Officer, then the District Agriculture Officer, and finally the Directorate of Agriculture, Gandhinagar. Applying on iKhedut is free — no agent may charge a fee to "get your name added", and no government officer will ask for your Aadhaar OTP.