Uttar Pradesh Mukhyamantri Khet Suraksha Yojana

What is Mukhyamantri Khet Suraksha Yojana?

Mukhyamantri Khet Suraksha Yojana is a subsidy scheme of the Agriculture Department (Krishi Vibhag) of the Government of Uttar Pradesh that pays for a large share of the cost of putting solar-powered fencing around a farm, so that stray cattle and wild animals cannot enter and destroy a standing crop.

The scheme was announced by the Uttar Pradesh government in 2023 and expanded in subsequent state budgets. Readers will find it referred to in Hindi as मुख्यमंत्री खेत सुरक्षा योजना.

The problem it addresses is specific and well documented. Across the Bundelkhand region, the Terai belt and much of central Uttar Pradesh, stray cattle (annawara pashu) and nilgai have become the largest single cause of crop loss. Farmers responded by stringing live wires from the mains supply around their fields, an illegal practice that killed animals and, in a number of recorded cases, farmers themselves. Khet Suraksha Yojana replaces that with a safe, legal, state-subsidised alternative.

How does the solar fencing actually work?

The fence is a 12-volt system charged by a solar panel and stored in a battery, driving an energiser that sends short pulses through the fence wire. An animal touching the wire gets a sharp but harmless shock together with a warning sound, and learns within one or two contacts to stay away.

Three features matter for a farmer deciding whether to install one:

• It is non-lethal by design. Twelve volts pulsed cannot kill an animal or a person, which is the entire point of the scheme.
• It runs off-grid. Because the power comes from a solar panel and battery, the fence works through the long power cuts that are normal in rural Uttar Pradesh, and it costs nothing to run.
• It is a psychological barrier, not a physical one. The wire itself is light. What keeps animals out is the learned response, so the fence must be kept energised and the vegetation under it cleared, or it stops working.

The Agriculture Department studied the large-scale solar fencing programmes already running in Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu before framing the Uttar Pradesh design.

How much subsidy does the scheme give?

The subsidy rate announced for the scheme is 60 per cent of the cost of the solar fencing system, and the figure repeatedly cited alongside it is about Rs 1.43 lakh per hectare.

One caution is worth stating plainly, because it affects how much money a farmer should expect. Government reporting on this scheme has described Rs 1.43 lakh per hectare in two different ways, in some accounts it is the installation cost per hectare on which 60 per cent subsidy is paid, and in others it is the maximum subsidy itself. Until you see your district's own sanction order, treat Rs 1.43 lakh as the ceiling figure associated with one hectare and confirm the exact split at the block agriculture office. Do not sign a supplier's contract on the assumption of a particular number.

The subsidy is:

• Capped by area. It is calculated per hectare, so a farmer with half a hectare receives a proportionately smaller amount, not the full Rs 1.43 lakh.
• Paid after installation, by Direct Benefit Transfer into the farmer's Aadhaar-seeded account, once the department has physically verified the installed fence against the bill.
• Limited by budget. The outlay has grown from an initial figure of about Rs 75 crore towards Rs 350 crore, but it is finite, so each district works to an annual physical target and selections are made against it.

Who is eligible for Khet Suraksha Yojana?

You can be considered if:

• You are a resident of Uttar Pradesh.
• You are a small or marginal farmer — the scheme was framed for small holdings, and district targets are filled from this group first.
• The land to be fenced is recorded in your own name in the khatauni.
• You are a registered farmer on the Uttar Pradesh agriculture portal, with a farmer registration number.
• Your Aadhaar is linked to your bank account, since the subsidy is paid by DBT.

You cannot apply, or are not eligible, if:

• You do not own the land you want to fence. Tenants and sharecroppers without recorded title cannot claim the subsidy on someone else's field.
• You are not a resident of Uttar Pradesh.
• You have already drawn the solar fencing subsidy for the same plot.
• Your Aadhaar is not linked to a working bank account, in which case the DBT will fail even if the claim is approved.
• You install the fence before selection and expect reimbursement. The approval must come first.

What documents are required?

How to apply for Mukhyamantri Khet Suraksha Yojana

1. Register as a farmer on upagriculture.com, the Uttar Pradesh Agriculture Department portal, if you are not already registered. Registration links your Aadhaar, your khatauni and your bank account, and generates the farmer registration number every departmental subsidy runs on.
2. Check with your block agriculture office (Rajkiya Krishi Beej Bhandar) or the District Agriculture Officer whether applications for solar fencing are open in your district for the current financial year, and what the district target is.
3. Submit the application for the solar fencing subsidy with your farmer registration number, khatauni, Aadhaar and bank details, either through the portal's scheme section when it is live or at the block office.
4. Wait for selection and a work order. Selection is made against the district target, with small and marginal farmers taken first.
5. Install the solar fencing on the approved plot, buying the system from an approved supplier and keeping the original bill with the equipment specifications.
6. Apply for subsidy release with the bill, and let the agriculture department physically verify the installed fence.
7. Receive the subsidy by DBT into your Aadhaar-seeded account.

A note on the scheme's rollout status

Mukhyamantri Khet Suraksha Yojana was announced in 2023 and its budget was enlarged in later state budgets, but it has been rolled out district by district against annual targets rather than as a single permanently open online application. Farmers repeatedly report finding no live "apply" link even when the scheme is being reported in the news, and the reason is that the window for their district has not been opened that year.

The practical consequence is that the block agriculture office, not a website search, is the reliable place to establish whether you can apply right now. Any private site promising an "online application link" for this scheme outside a departmental window should be treated with suspicion.

Why claims get rejected or delayed

• Land not in the applicant's name. The khatauni must show the applicant as the recorded holder of the plot being fenced.
• Aadhaar not seeded to the bank account, so the DBT fails at the last step.
• Fence installed before approval, which the department is not obliged to reimburse.
• Equipment below specification, for example a non-standard energiser or an undersized panel, found at physical verification.
• Bill not from an approved supplier or missing the equipment specifications.
• District target already exhausted for the financial year, in which case the application must be refiled when the next year's target is released.

Where to get help

• Block agriculture office and the District Agriculture Officer, who operate the scheme on the ground and hold the district target.
• upagriculture.com, the Uttar Pradesh Agriculture Department portal, which carries farmer registration, scheme notices and the department's published helpline numbers.
• Kisan Call Centre, 1800-180-1551, the national agriculture helpline, for general guidance on farm schemes.
• Jansunwai portal at jansunwai.up.nic.in, for a formal, trackable complaint if a verified installation is not paid.

No fee is payable to apply. No official or dealer may demand money to "get your name in the list", and a supplier who asks for the subsidy amount up front is acting outside the scheme.

How to check your application status

Khet Suraksha Yojana does not run on a single portal with a public tracking number, so status checking depends on which stage your claim is at.

• Registration and application stage. Log in to your farmer account on upagriculture.com with your farmer registration number. The scheme section of the portal shows whether your district's window is open and, once you have applied, whether your application is still pending, selected, or rejected for that year's target.
• After selection, before installation. Contact your block agriculture office (Rajkiya Krishi Beej Bhandar) or the District Agriculture Officer directly. Because selection and work orders are managed at district level against a physical target, the local office, not the state portal, holds the current list of who has been cleared to install.
• After installation, before payment. This is the stage where farmers most often need to chase a status, since the subsidy is only released once the department has physically verified the installed fence against your bill. Ask the block office when your plot is scheduled for verification, and keep your bill and photographs of the installed fence ready to show the inspecting officer.
• After verification, waiting for DBT. If verification is done but the subsidy has not been credited, check that your Aadhaar is correctly seeded to the bank account you gave at registration, since a seeding mismatch is the most common reason a cleared payment does not land.
• General guidance. For scheme-level questions the Kisan Call Centre on 1800-180-1551 can advise, though it does not have district-level visibility into individual applications.
• If a verified installation goes unpaid for an unreasonable time, file a complaint on the state's Jansunwai portal (jansunwai.up.nic.in), which creates a trackable reference number and routes the grievance to the district agriculture administration for a response.

There is no SMS-based status alert for this scheme at present, so the portal login and the block office remain the two working channels for most applicants.