Scheme to Encourage Farmers to Add Value to Crops

What is the Scheme to Encourage Farmers to Add Value to Crops?

Scheme to Encourage Farmers to Add Value to Crops is a Gujarat programme run by the Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Co-operation Department. The scheme gives farmers financial assistance towards machinery and equipment that lets them process their own harvest instead of selling it raw at the farm gate.

The economics behind it are straightforward. A groundnut farmer who sells pods at the mandi captures one price. The same farmer who cleans, grades, shells and packs before selling captures a different one, and keeps a share of the margin that otherwise goes to a trader or a processor. The same holds for turmeric that is boiled, dried and powdered, for mangoes that are pulped, for cumin that is cleaned and graded, and for milletts that are dehulled. Gujarat's value-addition scheme is aimed squarely at that gap, and it addresses it by subsidising the capital equipment rather than by guaranteeing a price.

The scheme also has a post-harvest loss objective. A large share of what a small holding loses is lost between harvest and sale: to moisture, to poor handling, to the absence of a grading step. Equipment that dries, cleans and packs addresses that loss directly.

The Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Co-operation Department runs this scheme alongside its wider set of programmes through the Director of Agriculture, the Director of Horticulture, the Director of Agriculture Marketing and Rural Finance and the Directorate of Animal Husbandry. All of these route citizen applications through the same portal, i-Khedut at ikhedut.gujarat.gov.in.

Who is eligible for value addition assistance?

You can seek assistance if:

• You are a farmer registered on i-Khedut with a completed farmer profile.
• You hold agricultural land in Gujarat, evidenced by a 7/12 and 8-A land record extract in your name.
• You intend to buy eligible machinery or equipment from the component list notified for the scheme in the current year.
• You are applying within the notified window for that component.
• You hold a bank account in your own name, preferably Aadhaar-seeded, since assistance is paid by direct transfer.

You cannot apply if:

• You are not registered on i-Khedut. There is no parallel paper-only route for the state's farm assistance schemes.
• You have no agricultural land record in Gujarat in your name.
• You are a trader, commission agent or standalone processing business that does not farm. The scheme supports farmers adding value to their own produce.
• You are applying outside the notified window. Gujarat opens and closes component windows by date, and a late application simply cannot be filed.
• You have already drawn assistance for the same equipment under another state or central scheme.
• You bought the equipment before receiving pre-approval. Prior purchase is the most common disqualifier in Gujarat's farm machinery schemes.

How much assistance does the scheme give?

The Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Co-operation Department notifies the assistance percentage and the per-unit ceiling component by component, each year, and publishes them against the component on i-Khedut when the window opens. This guide deliberately does not quote a rupee figure, because a number carried forward from an earlier year is worse than no number at all when you are about to spend your own money on a machine.

Two rules hold regardless of the year's notification:

• Assistance is computed on the notified cost norm, not on the supplier's quotation. If a supplier bills above the norm, the excess is entirely yours.
• Higher rates are commonly notified for SC and ST farmers on farm machinery components, which is why a caste certificate appears on the optional document list.

Check the component page on i-Khedut before you place an order, and print it.

How to apply for the Scheme to Encourage Farmers to Add Value to Crops

1. Register on i-Khedut at ikhedut.gujarat.gov.in if you are not already registered. You will need your Aadhaar number, mobile number, bank details and land record particulars.
2. Wait for the component window to open. i-Khedut lists which schemes and components are accepting applications and the closing date for each. This scheme is not open continuously.
3. Open the scheme and select the equipment component you want assistance for, then fill the application with your survey number, area and the machinery details.
4. Submit the online application and confirm it. i-Khedut requires a separate confirmation step after submission — an unconfirmed application is not a valid application, and this is where most first-time applicants lose their claim.
5. Print the confirmed application and submit it with your document set at the taluka or district agriculture office, or through your Village Computer Entrepreneur, within the days allowed.
6. Wait for the pre-approval order. Do not buy the machine before this arrives.
7. Purchase the equipment from an eligible supplier after approval, keeping the invoice and payment proof.
8. Submit the invoice and completion documents for verification and inspection, after which the assistance is transferred to your bank account.

How do I check my application status?

i-Khedut issues an application number at submission, and the portal carries an application-status option where that number, along with your land or Aadhaar details, returns the current stage. Keep the printed, confirmed application, as the number on it is the only reliable reference. If the status has not moved after the window closes, the taluka agriculture office or the District Agriculture Officer for your district is the correct escalation point. They hold the physical file after the online stage.

Why applications get rejected, and how to fix them

• Application submitted but never confirmed. Go back into i-Khedut and complete the confirmation step; an unconfirmed application does not enter the queue.
• Printed application not delivered in time. The online step alone is not enough for most i-Khedut components. Deliver the printout with documents before the stated cut-off.
• Land record mismatch. The survey number on the application must match the 7/12 extract exactly. Get the extract updated first if the record is in a deceased relative's name or reflects an old partition.
• Equipment purchased before approval. There is no retrospective sanction, so wait for the pre-approval order.
• Bank account not seeded with Aadhaar, which blocks the direct transfer even after sanction.
• Target exhausted. Gujarat's components carry annual physical targets. A complete, valid application can still be held over when the target for a component is filled, and the fix is to re-apply when the next window opens.

Where do I get help?

• i-Khedut portal: ikhedut.gujarat.gov.in, which is the authoritative source for the current component list, assistance rates and window dates.
• Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Co-operation Department: agri.gujarat.gov.in, which publishes the contact details of departmental officers.
• Taluka agriculture office or the District Agriculture Officer for your district, for a file that has stalled after the printed application was submitted.
• Village Computer Entrepreneur (VCE) in your village, for assisted data entry on i-Khedut.

A caution on verification. Gujarat revises the component list, the cost norms and the assistance percentages for its farm schemes by resolution each year, and this scheme's precise rates are published on i-Khedut rather than as a permanent notification. Treat any rupee figure you find on a non-government website as unverified until you have seen it on the component page in the year you are applying.