Uttar Pradesh Horticulture and Food Processing Schemes

What are the Uttar Pradesh Horticulture and Food Processing Schemes?

The Department of Horticulture and Food Processing (Udyan evam Khadya Sanskaran Vibhag) of the Government of Uttar Pradesh runs two clearly separate families of schemes, and confusing them is the single most common reason applications fail.

The first family is industrial. It sits under the Uttar Pradesh Food Processing Industry Policy 2017, notified as Government Order 33/2017/1105/58-2-2017-600(7)/2017, and it pays subsidies to entrepreneurs who set up, expand or modernise food processing units in the state. The policy document states that it remains operative for a period of five years from the date of issue, and a revised set of guidelines was issued on 3 June 2020. Claims under this family are filed at uphorticulture.in.

The second family is agricultural. The Directorate of Horticulture runs farmer-facing schemes on the DBT portal dbt.uphorticulture.in. The Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH), Per Drop More Crop micro-irrigation (PDMC-MI), the National Ayush Mission, horticultural development for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe farmers, the Falpatti Vikas Yojana, the Herbal Garden scheme, the Paan Utpadan scheme, horticultural development in Bundelkhand and the Vindhya region, Namami Gange horticulture along the Ganga, and the Potato Development Policy 2014.

According to the department, roughly 92 percent of Uttar Pradesh's farmers hold small plots, which is why horticulture crops: giving higher income per unit area than cereals; are the department's central bet.

How much subsidy does a food processing unit get?

The policy lists eight distinct assistance heads. The Directorate's own application menu at uphorticulture.in mirrors these one for one.

1. Capital investment subsidy. 25 percent of expenditure on plant, machinery and technical civil work, up to Rs 50 lakh, in all districts of the state, for setting up, expansion, modernisation or upgradation.

2. Additional capital subsidy under PMKSY. Fruit and vegetable units sanctioned under the Government of India's Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana (Agro-Marine Processing and Development of Agro-Processing Clusters) get an extra 10 percent of the cost of plant, machinery and technical civil work.

3. Mega Food Park subsidy. A Mega Food Park sanctioned for Uttar Pradesh under PMKSY with a minimum capital investment of Rs 50 crore and above gets an additional 10 percent of project cost from the state. The policy defines a mega project in food processing as one with Rs 50 crore or more invested.

4. Interest subsidy. Micro and small food processing units get 100 percent of the interest accrued on loans for plant, machinery, technical civil work and spare parts, for a maximum of five years. All other units get 7 percent for five years, capped at Rs 50 lakh per year per unit. Across heads 1 and 4 combined, a single unit cannot draw more than Rs 250 lakh over five years.

5. Reefer vehicle interest subsidy. For reefer vehicles and mobile pre-cooling vans, interest is reimbursed at 7 percent or the actual rate, whichever is lower, for five years, up to Rs 50 lakh.

6. Standardisation and patent support. 50 percent fee reimbursement up to Rs 1.50 lakh for ISO 14001, ISO 22000, HACCP and phytosanitary certification; and 75 percent of patent or design registration fees, up to Rs 1.50 lakh, as one-time support.

7. Market development and brand promotion. 50 percent of unit cost up to Rs 2 lakh for sending product samples abroad (one country, one sample per unit); 25 percent of actual transport cost to the sea port or airport up to Rs 10 lakh per year for three years; and 20 percent of F.O.B. price up to Rs 20 lakh per year for three years on exports.

8. Bankable DPR assistance. 50 percent of the actual cost of preparing a Detailed Project Report, up to Rs 5 lakh per beneficiary.

Two further heads support the ecosystem rather than individual firms: grant-in-aid up to Rs 75 lakh to universities and government institutions for libraries, pilot plants and laboratory equipment for food processing degree, diploma and certificate courses; and a 50 percent subsidy up to Rs 1 lakh per unit for small rural food processing units set up by people trained at government food processing training centres.

Who is eligible, and who is not?

You can claim under the food processing heads if:

• You are setting up, expanding, modernising or upgrading a food processing unit physically located in Uttar Pradesh.
• The unit is a proprietorship, partnership, company, society, co-operative or farmer producer organisation with the required registrations: Udyam, GST and an FSSAI licence appropriate to the product.
• You can produce chartered accountant and chartered engineer certification of the expenditure actually incurred on plant, machinery and technical civil work.
• For a reefer vehicle claim, the vehicle is bought against a bank or financial institution loan.

You cannot apply, or your claim will be reduced, if:

• The unit is located outside Uttar Pradesh.
• You have already received subsidy or assistance for the same head from another agency or from the Government of India. The policy directs that the earlier amount be deducted from what is otherwise admissible. Heads 7.1.1(B) and 7.1.1(C) — the PMKSY and Mega Food Park top-ups: are the stated exceptions.
• You want to combine the ordinary 25 percent capital subsidy under Para 7.1.1(A) with the PMKSY or Mega Food Park additional subsidy. The policy states the 7.1.1(A) facility is not admissible to proposals covered under 7.1.1(B) or (C).
• You are a farmer seeking planting material, drip irrigation or orchard subsidy. Those are not on this portal at all; use dbt.uphorticulture.in.

The policy also makes clear that a unit remains free to take subsidy from the Government of India or another department under a head not covered by this policy.

How to apply for UP food processing subsidy

1. Register on uphorticulture.in. Use the "Register" link on the home page to create an entrepreneur account with your mobile number and email, then log in through "Login".
2. Prepare the Detailed Project Report. Download the model DPR format (Annexure A/16) from the Annexure Format page and prepare the DPR in that structure. The department also publishes model DPRs for food processing industries and a raw material availability document for the state.
3. Download and fill the annexures. Nineteen annexure formats are published, covering plant and machinery details (A/1), CA certificates (A/2, A/3, A/4, A/17, A/18), utilisation certificate (A/5), affidavit (A/6), chartered engineer certificates for civil and mechanical work (A/7, A/8), indemnity bond (A/9), promoter affidavit (A/10), bank certificates (A/11 to A/13), interest subsidy claim formats (A/14 for units, A/15 for reefer vans) and beneficiary details.
4. Choose the correct scheme head. Under "Online Form", pick exactly one of the eight heads listed on the Scheme Details page. Picking the wrong head is a common rejection reason, particularly mixing the plain capital subsidy with the PMKSY head.
5. Upload documents and submit. Attach the DPR, annexures, invoices, land or lease papers, registrations and bank papers, then submit and note the application number.
6. Cooperate with district inspection. The District Manager, District Industries Centre implements capital investment proposals. A district-level committee headed by the District Magistrate, with the District Horticulture Officer and the Food Processing officer as ex-officio members, verifies the unit before sanction.
7. File the utilisation certificate. After the first instalment is released, submit Annexure A/5 so the second instalment can be processed.

Horticulture farmers follow a different route entirely: open dbt.uphorticulture.in, choose Kisan Panjikaran (farmer registration), register with Aadhaar and land details, then log in through Kisan Login and book the subsidy component you want under the relevant scheme.

How do I check my application status?

Log in to your uphorticulture.in account with the credentials you registered with; the dashboard shows the stage of each application. The public Report section on the same site publishes cumulative progress. As on 7 August 2026 it showed 1,472 applicants across all heads, Rs 7,500.67 crore of projected investment and 94,735 projected jobs (38,711 direct and 56,024 indirect). The largest single head is the plain capital subsidy with 743 applicants, followed by interest subsidy with 671.

For farmer schemes, status is visible inside the Kisan Login dashboard on dbt.uphorticulture.in.

Why do applications get rejected?

• Wrong scheme head chosen, especially claiming the 25 percent capital subsidy alongside a PMKSY or Mega Food Park top-up, which the policy expressly bars.
• CA certificate without a membership number. Annexure A/18 exists precisely because this was a recurring defect; use it rather than a plain letter.
• Expenditure claimed on non-eligible items. Only plant, machinery and technical civil work count. General construction, land cost, office furniture and vehicles other than reefer vehicles do not.
• Duplicate subsidy not disclosed. The affidavit and indemnity bond require disclosure; an undisclosed central subsidy discovered later leads to recovery.
• Unit not physically ready at inspection. The district committee verifies installed machinery, so claims filed before commissioning stall.
• Bank certificate missing for an interest claim. Annexures A/13 and A/14 must come from the lending bank, not from the applicant.

Key dates and policy status

The Uttar Pradesh Food Processing Industry Policy 2017 was notified with effect for five years from the date of notification. Amendments and revised guidelines were issued, with the amendment dated 3 June 2020 and revised guidelines published alongside the original guidelines on uphorticulture.in. There is no annual last date for filing; claims are accepted through the year against the heads that remain in force, and the portal was still accepting applications and publishing updated reports in August 2026. Because a state policy of this kind is periodically superseded, check the Download section of uphorticulture.in for the latest government order before you commit expenditure.

How do I raise a grievance?

Contact the Directorate of Horticulture and Food Processing in Lucknow on 0522-2200991 or 0522-4044414, the numbers published on the department's Contact page. Escalate district-level delays to the District Horticulture Officer and the District Manager, District Industries Centre, since both sit on the district implementation committee. Unresolved complaints can be filed on the Uttar Pradesh Jansunwai portal at jansunwai.up.nic.in, which routes the reference to the concerned department and gives a trackable complaint number. Divisional-level monitoring is done by a committee chaired by the Commissioner, with District Magistrates and Chief Development Officers as members, and the Principal of the Food Science Training Centre or the Food Processing Officer as Member Secretary, that committee is the right level for a complaint a district office has sat on.