Agricultural Investment Grant (in Case of Crop Damage of 33% or More) - Uttarakhand
Uttarakhand state government scheme
Agricultural Investment Grant is a Uttarakhand relief payment for farmers whose standing crop is damaged by 33 per cent or more in a natural calamity such as hailstorm, cloudburst, flood, landslide or frost. The grant is paid per hectare at State Disaster Response Fund rates after a revenue survey, and goes straight to the farmer's bank account.
What is the Agricultural Investment Grant?
The Agricultural Investment Grant, also called the agricultural input subsidy for crop loss; is the payment the Government of Uttarakhand makes to a farmer whose standing crop has been damaged by 33 per cent or more in a natural calamity. Uttarakhand's terrain makes this a routine rather than a rare event: hailstorms in the Rabi season, cloudbursts and flash floods in the monsoon, landslides that carry away terraced fields, frost in the higher valleys, and drought in years when the rain fails.
The grant is administered jointly. The Revenue Department assesses the loss through the patwari and the tehsil, the Disaster Management Department funds it from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) under norms notified by the Government of India, and the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare supports the assessment and links the affected farmer back into the seed and input supply chain for the next season.
The purpose is narrow and worth stating plainly: the grant is not compensation for the value of the lost crop. It is an input subsidy; money to buy seed, fertiliser and other inputs so the farmer can sow the next crop instead of taking a moneylender's loan. That is why it is paid per hectare of damaged area at a fixed rate, rather than against the market value of what was lost.
Key features
- Triggered only when assessed damage is 33 per cent or more of the standing crop.
- Paid per hectare of affected area at the rate fixed under the SDRF norms of assistance, with different rates for rainfed land, land with assured irrigation, and perennial crops.
- Subject to a ceiling on the area admissible per farmer.
- Paid by direct benefit transfer into the farmer's bank account.
- No premium and no enrolment, unlike crop insurance, nothing has to be bought in advance.
Who is eligible for the crop damage grant?
You can claim if:
- You are a farmer in Uttarakhand whose standing crop was damaged by a notified natural calamity, hailstorm, cloudburst, flood, landslide, frost, unseasonal rain, drought or similar.
- The damage assessed in the revenue survey is 33 per cent or more of the crop on that plot.
- The land record shows the plot in your name, or shows you as the recorded cultivator.
- You reported the loss within the window the district administration set after the event, and your plot was included in the survey.
You cannot claim / are not eligible if:
- The assessed damage is below 33 per cent. This is a hard threshold, not a sliding scale.
- The loss is to a crop that had already been harvested and was in storage, or to land that was not sown at the time of the calamity.
- The cause of loss is not a natural calamity — pest damage in a normal season, poor seed, or a market price crash do not qualify.
- You are an unrecorded sharecropper or tenant with no cultivation entry in the revenue record. In that case the recorded landholder appears in the survey list, not you.
- The loss was never reported and the plot was not surveyed. There is no way to reconstruct a girdawari after the season has turned.
What documents are required?
| Document | Mandatory | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Khasra / khatauni land record | Yes | Shows the plot, the area and the holder |
| Aadhaar card | Yes | Identifies the farmer and seeds the bank account for DBT |
| Bank account passbook | Yes | The grant is credited directly to this account |
| Written loss report to the tehsil | Yes | Keep the acknowledged copy as proof of timely reporting |
| Photographs of the damage | No | Helpful, but the revenue survey is the operative record |
How to apply for the Agricultural Investment Grant
- Report the loss immediately. Inform the patwari or lekhpal of your revenue circle and give a written application at the tehsil office naming the date of the calamity, the village, the khasra numbers affected, the crop sown and the approximate area damaged. Take an acknowledgement.
- Be present for the girdawari survey. The patwari inspects the affected plots and records the percentage of damage plot by plot, with support from the agriculture or horticulture department where the crop needs technical assessment. Your presence at the inspection is the single best protection against your plot being under-assessed or skipped.
- Give your Aadhaar and bank account details to the patwari or the tehsil for the payment list, and check that the account number and IFSC are copied correctly.
- Wait for the list to be approved. The tehsildar compiles the surveyed cases, the Sub-Divisional Magistrate verifies them, and the District Magistrate sanctions payment from the SDRF allocation.
- Check that the credit has reached your account after the district announces disbursal for that calamity, and take up any missing entry with the tehsil straight away.
There is no self-service online application for this grant. The route is deliberately through the revenue field staff, because the payment depends on a physical inspection of the damaged plot that only they can record.
How to check the status of your claim
- Ask the patwari whether your khasra numbers appear in the girdawari record for that calamity, and at what damage percentage.
- Ask the tehsildar whether your name appears in the payment list forwarded to the SDM and the DM for that event.
- Check your bank passbook or statement for the DBT credit after the district announces disbursal.
- If the entry exists but the money has not arrived, the usual cause is a bank account mismatch: get it corrected at the tehsil.
Why claims fail, and how to prevent it
- Loss reported too late. Districts run a short survey window after each event. A field surveyed after replanting has begun cannot be assessed.
- Damage assessed below 33 per cent. Being present at the inspection and showing the full extent of the affected area matters more than any document.
- Plot not in the survey. Remote and scattered hill plots get missed. Give the khasra numbers in writing at the tehsil rather than relying on a verbal report.
- Land record not updated. After a partition or inheritance, the record may still show an earlier holder, and the payment follows the record.
- Bank account problems. A dormant account, a wrong IFSC or a name mismatch between Aadhaar and the bank stops the DBT credit even after sanction.
- Confusing this with insurance. A farmer who has filed a Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana claim sometimes assumes the input subsidy is automatic. The two run on separate tracks and each has to be pursued separately.
Key dates and timing
The grant is event-driven, not calendar-driven. There is no annual application window and no last date published in advance. What matters is the sequence after a calamity:
- Within days of the event: report the loss in writing to the patwari and tehsil.
- The following days or weeks, the girdawari survey is conducted; be present.
- After district approval: payment is released by DBT from the SDRF allocation for that event.
Because the trigger is a calamity, farmers should keep the land record, Aadhaar and bank passbook current before the season, so that nothing has to be arranged in the days after a hailstorm.
Help and grievance redressal
- Uttarakhand Kisaan helpline: 18001801551
- Uttarakhand CM Helpline: 1905
- Department of Agriculture, Uttarakhand: agriculture.uk.gov.in
- Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority: usdma.uk.gov.in
- Local escalation: patwari or lekhpal, then tehsildar, then the Sub-Divisional Magistrate, then the District Magistrate
No fee is payable for reporting crop loss or for being included in the girdawari survey. Neither the patwari nor any intermediary is authorised to charge for adding a farmer's name to the relief list; report any such demand on the CM Helpline.
Documents required
Frequently asked questions
What is the Agricultural Investment Grant in Uttarakhand?
The Agricultural Investment Grant is disaster relief paid to a farmer whose standing crop has been damaged by 33 per cent or more in a natural calamity, to help buy seed, fertiliser and other inputs for the next sowing. It is a per-hectare input subsidy paid from the State Disaster Response Fund after a revenue survey, not a crop insurance claim.
What is the 33 per cent threshold?
The 33 per cent threshold is the minimum crop loss at which the grant becomes payable — damage assessed below 33 per cent of the standing crop does not attract the input subsidy. The assessment is made by the revenue department during the girdawari survey of the affected plots, not by the farmer's own estimate.
Who assesses the crop damage?
The patwari or lekhpal of the area assesses the damage plot by plot in a girdawari survey, with the agriculture and horticulture departments supporting the assessment. The list is compiled at the tehsil, approved by the Sub-Divisional Magistrate and District Magistrate, and payment is then released.
Is this the same as Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana?
No. The Agricultural Investment Grant is a government relief payment funded from the State Disaster Response Fund and needs no premium, while Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana is an insurance product with a premium and an insurance company settling the claim. A farmer can be covered by both, and a crop insurance claim does not bar the disaster input subsidy.
How is the money paid?
The grant is paid by direct benefit transfer into the farmer's own bank account once the district administration approves the survey list, so the account must be live and correctly linked to the farmer's records.
How much is paid per hectare?
The per-hectare rate is fixed under the State Disaster Response Fund norms of assistance, and it differs for rainfed land, land with assured irrigation and perennial crops, with a ceiling on the area allowed per farmer. Rates are revised periodically by the Government of India, so confirm the current figure with your tehsil or district agriculture office rather than relying on an older number.
What if my land is not in my name?
A sharecropper or tenant can be considered only where the cultivation is recorded, so get the tenancy or cultivation entry made in the revenue record before a calamity, not after it. Where nothing is recorded, the grant follows the recorded landholder.
Where do I complain if my name is left out?
Raise it first with the tehsildar and the Sub-Divisional Magistrate, who hold the survey list, and then with the District Magistrate. The Uttarakhand CM Helpline on 1905 and the state Kisaan helpline on 18001801551 are the escalation routes if the district does not respond.
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