Scheme to Provide Assistance for Construction of Retail Outlets/ Agricultural Malls in State Market Committees

What is this scheme for retail outlets and agricultural malls?

Scheme to Provide Assistance for Construction of Retail Outlets and Agricultural Malls in State Market Committees is a capital-assistance scheme of the Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Co-operation Department, Government of Gujarat, administered through the Director of Agriculture Marketing and Rural Finance. The scheme funds the construction of retail outlets and Krishi Malls inside the premises of Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMCs) located in Gujarat's "C" and "D" class areas.

The economic logic is direct marketing. In a conventional APMC yard, a farmer sells to a licensed trader, who sells onward to a wholesaler and eventually to a retailer. Each layer takes a margin. A retail outlet or agricultural mall inside the market committee lets the farmer, or a farmer group, sell finished and graded produce straight to consumers who walk in. The scheme documentation states the purpose plainly: these establishments help farmers sell their produce directly, eliminating middlemen and ensuring fair prices.

The scheme deliberately targets the smaller market committees. Gujarat classifies APMCs by category, and the larger "A" and "B" class committees in major towns already generate enough market cess to fund their own infrastructure. A "C" or "D" class committee in a small taluka usually cannot, and this is the component that gives it a route to a modern retail facility.

Who is eligible under this scheme?

Eligible applicants:

• Market Committees of all areas of the "C" and "D" class of Gujarat State. That is the entire published eligibility condition. The applicant is the institution, not a person.

Who cannot apply or is not eligible:

• Individual farmers. There is no personal grant here. A farmer wanting a personal benefit should look at the state's farmer-facing schemes on the i-Khedut portal instead.
• Traders, commission agents and private shopkeepers, who cannot claim assistance to build their own shop inside a market yard.
• Farmer producer organisations, co-operative societies and private companies applying in their own name — the scheme routes assistance through the market committee.
• Market committees in categories other than "C" and "D", which are outside this component.

This is the single point readers most often get wrong. The scheme is listed on citizen scheme-discovery portals alongside individual benefit schemes, but there is no citizen application flow. A member of the public benefits by shopping at, or selling through, an outlet that the market committee builds.

How much assistance is given?

Two conditions are built into that sentence. The assistance is capped at Rs 2 crore regardless of how large the project is, so a committee planning a Rs 3 crore mall must find Rs 1 crore itself, not the 10% that the percentage alone would suggest. And the wording "any one market committee" indicates the benefit is available once per committee for this purpose, not repeatedly for successive buildings.

What documents does the proposal need?

The published list closes with "any other documents required by the authorities", so the district office may ask for audited accounts of the market committee, a note on how the outlet will be operated, or evidence that the committee can fund its 10% share.

How to apply for assistance for a retail outlet or agricultural mall

1. The market committee passes a resolution to build a retail outlet or Krishi Mall and identifies the site inside its premises.
2. The committee engages an engineer from the panel approved by the Director of Agricultural Marketing and Rural Finance and gets the development plan and cost estimate prepared and certified.
3. The committee submits the proposal, maps and estimates to the Deputy Director and District Registrar of Co-operative Societies of its district.
4. The district office scrutinises the proposal and forwards it, with its recommendation, to the Director of Agriculture Marketing and Rural Finance.
5. On sanction, the committee executes the work against the approved estimate and claims the assistance, which is limited to 90% of the project cost and Rs 2 crore.

There is no online submission route for this component, and there is no application form for individuals.

How is a proposal followed up?

Follow-up runs through the office of the Deputy Director and District Registrar of Co-operative Societies where the proposal was lodged, and then through the Director of Agriculture Marketing and Rural Finance, whose office publishes district-wise and APMC-wise contact details at doamrf.gujarat.gov.in. Because sanction depends on the annual budget provision for the scheme, a proposal that is technically sound may still wait for a funding cycle; the district office is the right place to ask where a file stands.

Why proposals get held up

• Estimate prepared by an engineer who is not on the approved panel. The certification requirement is explicit and a non-panel estimate is returned.
• Market committee outside the "C" and "D" classes, which makes the proposal ineligible at the threshold.
• No clear title or possession of the site on which the outlet is to be built.
• Committee unable to demonstrate its own 10% share, or its share of costs above the Rs 2 crore ceiling.
• Incomplete maps or estimates, which are the most common cause of a file going back and forth rather than being rejected outright.
• Budget exhaustion for the year, which delays rather than defeats a proposal.

How does this scheme sit alongside other Gujarat market infrastructure funding?

Market committees in Gujarat are constituted under the state's agricultural produce markets law and are supervised by the Director of Agriculture Marketing and Rural Finance, while the Gujarat State Agricultural Marketing Board (GSAMB) at gsamb.gujarat.gov.in handles market infrastructure development at state level. A committee planning a retail outlet should check whether any part of the same project is already funded through another marketing infrastructure route before claiming under this scheme, because the same expenditure cannot be funded twice. Committees whose category places them outside the "C" and "D" classes, or whose project is larger than what a Rs 2 crore ceiling can support, usually route the balance through their own market cess reserves or through GSAMB programmes rather than through this component.

Where do you raise a grievance?

Grievances on a pending proposal go to the Deputy Director and District Registrar of Co-operative Societies of the district, and then to the Director of Agriculture Marketing and Rural Finance under the Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Co-operation Department, Gandhinagar. Contact details for the directorate and for individual APMCs are published on doamrf.gujarat.gov.in and on agri.gujarat.gov.in.

What could not be verified

No dedicated helpline number is published for this specific component, so none is listed on this page. The scheme documentation also does not publish a fixed application window or last date; proposals are considered as they are received, subject to the budget provision for the year, and this guide states that rather than inventing a deadline.