Krushi Mahotsav(KM)

Overview

About KM

Krushi Mahotsav is an agriculture outreach campaign run by the Government of Gujarat's Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Co-operation Department, and the person it is built around is a farmer standing in a village, not a student paying a college fee. Nobody gets tuition money, a monthly stipend or a hostel allowance out of it. What the state brings to the village instead is advice from agricultural scientists, soil testing, printed guidance, free input kits for some households, and officials carrying the paperwork for other farm schemes.

If you reached the name through a scholarship listing, that is worth settling before you read further. The classification is not wrong exactly, since the campaign does teach farming, but the benefit is delivered in kind at a camp, and there is no fee, no cash award and no academic eligibility test anywhere in it. A student who wants money from this same department has to look past the campaign to its agricultural universities, where Junagadh Agricultural University and Sardarkrushinagar Dantiwada Agricultural University each run monthly scholarship and fellowship schemes of their own for their undergraduate and postgraduate students (myScheme, myScheme).

The department describes Krushi Mahotsav as a programme that carries modern implements, farming methods, water harvesting and electricity harvesting to farmers at village level, planned around making conditions more favourable for Kharif season preparation, with seminars, exhibitions and the handing over of cheques and kits to people already sanctioned assistance under other schemes (Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Co-operation Department). Its slogan, as Junagadh Agricultural University records it, was agricultural scientists at the doorstep of farmers (Junagadh Agricultural University).

On the question of when it began, the department's own page states that Krushi Mahotsav-2005 was first started in the year 2005-06 (Directorate of Agriculture, Gujarat), and Junagadh Agricultural University dates the first campaign to that same season (Junagadh Agricultural University). A scheme directory that carries a later opening year is dating its own entry rather than the campaign, which by then had already run several seasons. The spelling moves between Krushi and Krishi depending on which office wrote the page; both refer to the same programme.

The mechanics of that original design were unusually large for an extension exercise. A 2012 assessment by the Gujarat Institute of Development Research, built on fieldwork done in August and September 2010 in one village in each of 26 districts, described a month-long campaign beginning on Akshaya Tritiya in which as many as 100,000 personnel from 18 government departments were deployed, and a mobile exhibition, the Krishi Rath, that visited all 18,600 villages in the state and was normally stationed 2 to 3 hours in each one. The Gujarat Agro Industries Corporation had set up 238 Krishi Raths for the 2012 edition, and each rath covered 3 to 4 villages a day (GIDR Occasional Paper Series No. 2).

It is still a funded line of state business. The Government of Gujarat's Development Programme 2026-27 carries Krushi Mahotsav as scheme AGR-1, a state-wide farmer outreach programme conducted at village level, implemented by the Director of Agriculture, with intended beneficiaries recorded as all the farmers of Gujarat State (Development Programme 2026-27, Government of Gujarat).

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

The campaign has run on two different calendars over its life. Its original design was a month-long drive starting on Akshaya Tritiya, before the monsoon, timed at Kharif preparation (GIDR Occasional Paper Series No. 2). The editions the state has publicised in recent years are Ravi, or Rabi, editions running two days, timed ahead of the winter crop rather than the monsoon one.

The 2025 edition was slotted into Vikas Saptah, the state's week of themed events from October 7 to 15, with October 14 observed as Krushi Vikas Diwas (ANI). Dates therefore move with the state's event calendar as much as the crop one, and across those three editions the announcement came from the Agriculture Minister and the Chief Minister's office within days of the event rather than from a standing annual window. Watch the Directorate of Agriculture's announcements and ask at your taluka agriculture office for the local venue.

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

Any farmer in Gujarat can walk into the programme. The state budget book states the intended beneficiaries as all the farmers of Gujarat State, and the department applies no caste, religion or gender bar, no age limit and no condition about the kind of land held (Development Programme 2026-27, Government of Gujarat).

Attendance and benefit are separate things, though, and the difference matters more than the open door suggests. Turning up at a Krishi Rath halt or a taluka fair asks nothing of you. Being on the list for a free input kit is decided elsewhere, at the Gram Sabha held before the rath arrives, where the village committee draws up the beneficiary list; GIDR's 2010 fieldwork found the criterion the sarpanch generally used for allotting Krishi Kits was that the family should be a Below Poverty Line family (GIDR Occasional Paper Series No. 2).

Livestock owners are included as well, not only crop farmers. At the October 2025 edition the Animal Husbandry Department ran free animal health camps across the two days, and progressive farmers and livestock owners were recognised by the state (Agriculture Minister Raghavji Patel, reported by ANI).

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

Nothing bars a category of farmer from attending, and no disqualification list has been issued for the campaign, which fits an event that charges no fee and takes no application. The honest reading is that the exclusions sit one level down, inside whichever assistance scheme a farmer is actually claiming.

The practical limit worth knowing is the kit list. Because the beneficiary list is settled in the Gram Sabha rather than by a departmental rule, GIDR recorded landless households in some villages receiving kits they could not use, and households in Surendranagar selling or discarding them (GIDR Occasional Paper Series No. 2). A farmer who misses that meeting is out of the one item handed over free, whatever else the camp offers on the day.

Continuation

Renewal conditions

Renewal has no meaning for a camp. Nothing is awarded over a tenure that could lapse, be extended or be forfeited; a farmer attends an edition, takes the advice or the kit, and turns up again when the campaign next reaches the village. The department has held editions year after year since 2005-06, so participation repeats by calendar rather than by renewal paperwork (Junagadh Agricultural University).

Anything a farmer applies for through the camp, such as a subsidy or an assistance order under another scheme, follows that scheme's own duration and renewal rules.

What you get

Award & benefits

Money is not the unit of benefit. The Development Programme 2026-27 records the scale of assistance for AGR-1 as Not Applicable, which is the state's own way of saying the line funds an outreach exercise rather than a payment to individuals (Development Programme 2026-27, Government of Gujarat).

What is actually handed over falls into four kinds: technical advice, a soil health card after a soil sample is taken, free input kits of seeds and planting material for the households on the Gram Sabha's list, and sanction letters or orders for assistance already approved under other agriculture, horticulture and animal husbandry schemes. Junagadh Agricultural University lists the campaign's village activities as kit distribution for agricultural inputs, planting materials and animal husbandry medicines, collection of soil and water samples with issue of soil health cards, demonstrations of drip and sprinkler irrigation and farm tools, animal vaccination and artificial insemination, and distribution of leaflets and booklets (Junagadh Agricultural University).

Those activities are spread across three tiers, which GIDR set out as the campaign was running at the time of its assessment:

The scale of the sanction letters is where the real money shows up, and it belongs to other schemes. At the October 2025 edition the state said assistance sanction letters and orders worth about Rs 500 crore would go to over five lakh farmer beneficiaries across agriculture, horticulture and animal husbandry schemes, alongside 2,800 exhibition stalls (ANI). At the December 2024 edition the Chief Minister honoured 12 farmers with the Sardar Patel Agricultural Research Awards and benefits worth Rs 11.48 lakh were distributed under farmer schemes (CMO Gujarat).

Be careful about what awareness is worth on its own. The GIDR study found 998 of the 1445 households it surveyed, about 69 per cent, aware of the campaign, but only about 29 per cent of those aware of it knew what subsidies were on offer, and in its closing assessment only about 8 per cent said they had managed to avail a subsidy they learnt about there; farmers blamed long processes and paperwork (GIDR Occasional Paper Series No. 2). Those are 2010 field numbers rather than a current measurement, and they describe the gap between hearing about assistance at a camp and receiving it.

What to prepare

Documents required

Attendance needs no document at all. The one thing worth carrying is proof of your land, since the officers at the halt use ownership details to work out whether a particular assistance scheme fits your holding before you fill in its form.

Where documents genuinely start to matter is the application you file at the camp rather than the camp itself. The Gram Sabha held before the Krishi Rath reaches the village exists partly to collect application forms for different schemes and to prepare beneficiary lists (GIDR Occasional Paper Series No. 2). Each of those schemes carries its own document list, and the checklist that binds you is that scheme's, published on the state portal where the scheme lives.

Step by step

How to apply

Nothing is submitted to join Krushi Mahotsav. Farmers reach it by attending the camp organised at their village, taluka or district when the campaign runs, and the department organises the programme so that guidance reaches farmers at their doorstep rather than asking them to travel to an office (Directorate of Agriculture, Gujarat).

The practical route is the village calendar. A Gram Sabha is convened before the rath arrives, and it is the meeting that forms the village committee, collects scheme application forms and identifies who receives kits (GIDR Occasional Paper Series No. 2). Missing it does not stop you attending the camp, but it removes you from the list-making.

Following up on what you filed at the camp

An application handed in at a Krushi Mahotsav camp lands in the ordinary state system for farm assistance, and that is where you follow it. Gujarat routes farmer scheme applications through the i-Khedut portal, whose menu carries an Application Status lookup and a View / Print Application option for pulling a filed form back out (i-Khedut, Government of Gujarat). Keep the acknowledgement slip or application number the officer gives you at the camp, since that is what the status lookup is keyed to.

The campaign itself has no status to check, no reference number and no disbursal to wait for. If someone at a camp promises you a payment for attending, the promise is not coming from this programme.

How winners are picked

Selection process

Attendance is not selected for. Anyone who reaches the venue takes part, which is the whole point of moving the event to the village instead of holding it in a district headquarters.

Selection exists in two narrow places. The first is the free input kit, chosen by the village committee at the Gram Sabha under the sarpanch, in practice on a Below Poverty Line test as GIDR's 2010 fieldwork recorded it (GIDR Occasional Paper Series No. 2). The second is recognition: the Sardar Patel Agricultural Research Awards handed to 12 farmers at the December 2024 edition went to people already judged for innovation and contribution to agriculture, not to anyone who applied on the day (CMO Gujarat).

For everything else, what determines whether a farmer benefits is whether the scheme they applied to sanctions their case, on that scheme's rules.

Fine print

Terms & conditions

Attending costs nothing, and no fee or registration charge attaches to any part of the campaign. Nothing you receive at a camp creates an entitlement to receive it again, and taking part does not by itself sanction any assistance.

Assistance announced or handed over at a camp is still governed by the scheme it belongs to, including its ceilings, its documents and its recovery clauses, and not by anything said from the stage. Timing is the other thing to hold loosely: GIDR's 2010 fieldwork found farmers in Navsari, Valsad, Rajkot and Amreli districts receiving their input kits after the sowing season had passed (GIDR Occasional Paper Series No. 2). Nobody should plan a season around a kit that has been promised but not yet handed over.

Get help

Contact

The programme sits with the Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Co-operation Department at Block No. 5, First floor, New Sachivalaya, Gandhinagar, reachable on 079-23250803 and at secagri@gujarat.gov.in (Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Co-operation Department).

Day to day, the office that matters is closer. The Director of Agriculture is the implementing agency for the AGR-1 line (Development Programme 2026-27, Government of Gujarat), and the Directorate publishes district office and Deputy Director contacts, which is where a farmer asks when and where the rath or the taluka fair is coming (Directorate of Agriculture, Gujarat).

Source

Official links

Frequently asked questions

From the official scheme FAQ (myScheme)

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Disclaimer

Disclaimer

Scheme details are compiled from myScheme, the Government of India’s official scheme-discovery platform, and are reproduced without alteration. Amounts, deadlines and eligibility change between cycles, so always confirm on the official links above before applying. Expertie does not process applications or charge fees.

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