Understand horticulture subsidies
before you invest

Most machinery under NHM defers to SMAM norms rather than carrying its own figure. The clearest exception is a power tiller up to 8 BHP, costed at ₹1.0 lakh per unit with a maximum of ₹0.40 lakh for general-category farmers.

INM and IPM carry a cost norm of ₹5,000 per hectare at 30%, up to 2 hectares per beneficiary. That 30% is the lowest rate in the scheme. Organic farming has no NHM figure at all; the guidelines send you to PKVY norms.

Rejuvenation of old orchards is supported at 40% in general areas for up to 2 hectares, with removal of dead plants at ₹10,000 per hectare and inputs at ₹40,000 per hectare. Mushroom units are supported separately, with the larger ones credit-linked.

A large nursery of 1 to 2 hectares carries a cost norm up to ₹30 lakh per hectare at 40% for the private sector; a small nursery of 0.4 to 1 hectare carries ₹20 lakh per hectare at 50%. Both come with minimum production and accreditation conditions.

A community water harvesting structure is supported at a higher rate than an individual farm pond, and a tube-well is considered only when integrated with another component. Beekeeping is supported through colonies, hives and equipment sets, with per-beneficiary limits.

Most large post-harvest and cold-chain projects are assisted at 35% in general areas as credit-linked back-ended assistance. Cold storage up to 5,000 MT is promoted under NHM; larger capacity moves to the NHB sub-scheme, and subsidy under NHM stops at 5,000 MT.

No single rate applies. Protected cultivation is generally 50%, most field crops 40%, INM and IPM 30%, and most large post-harvest projects 35%. The rate is set component by component, and always with a ceiling attached.

Planting material and cultivation inside a protected structure is a separate component from the structure. High-value vegetables carry ₹150 per square metre, orchid and anthurium ₹700, carnation and gerbera ₹600, and rose, chrysanthemum and lilium ₹450, all at 50%.

MIDH is the umbrella horticulture mission. NHM is the sub-scheme of MIDH that covers most States and Union Territories. SHM is the State-level machinery that implements it. They are not three competing schemes.

Most fruit area-expansion components are assisted at 40% in general areas, up to 2 hectares per beneficiary, against crop-specific cost norms. For several perennial crops the money comes in two instalments of 60:40, with the second subject to 80% plant survival.

Add-ons are separate components with their own norms and their own ceilings: hydroponics at ₹350 per square metre, circulation fans at ₹5,000 per fan for up to 6 fans, mulching at ₹40,000 per hectare, and fencing at ₹300 per running metre up to 1,000 metres.

There is no single polyhouse subsidy. Fan and pad and naturally ventilated structures carry different cost norms, both fall as the area grows, both are assisted at 50%, and both are capped at 4,000 square metres per beneficiary.

A tubular shade net house carries a cost norm of ₹710 per square metre and a bamboo one ₹450, both assisted at 50% up to 4,000 square metres. Tunnels and anti-bird or anti-hail nets are separate components with their own, much lower, norms.

Hybrid vegetables carry ₹60,000 per hectare and open-pollinated ones ₹50,000. Cut flowers carry ₹1.25 lakh, bulbous flowers ₹2.50 lakh and loose flowers ₹50,000. All are assisted at 40% in general areas up to 2 hectares.

A cost norm is the upper limit of cost the guidelines recognise when calculating your subsidy. It is not the market price, and a quotation above the norm does not increase your assistance.

Everyone quotes 50%. Worked at the 4,000 square metre limit against the April 2025 cost norms, the same rule returns about 50% on a net house, 35% on a naturally ventilated polyhouse and 16% on a fan and pad greenhouse — because subsidy is calculated on the cost norm, not on your bill.

Delhi's agriculture department address does not resolve for us and its main portal carries no horticulture scheme page a fetch can find. Several bodies hold pieces of horticulture here — the development department for the rural villages, the municipal corporation and the DDA for parks and plantations — and they answer different questions.

We have not found an address for the islands' agriculture administration that answers, so this is one of two places on the site with no department linked. Two things are still solid: the Board's circular names these islands for the higher 45% rate, and coconut here routes to a different board entirely.

The administration's agriculture page will not show its contents without JavaScript. Chandigarh is a city union territory with very little agricultural land, and the Mission is built around area expansion and orchards at a scale it largely does not have — but that is a guess, and this page will not present a guess as a finding.

Agriculture and horticulture are run by a single Agriculture Department for the merged territory. Three formerly separate administrations were merged in 2020, so material published before then may belong to a body that no longer exists.

Haryana runs substantial horticulture programmes of its own alongside the national Mission, including a state horticulture development scheme and an insurance scheme for horticulture crops. Its department site shows a fetch seven links and no scheme documents.

The Department of Horticulture's site answers and carries a news ticker. Beyond that a fetch sees four links and no documents at all — no schemes page, no guidelines, no orders, nothing to download.

Horticulture here sits with food processing, under the Department of Food Processing Industries and Horticulture. Its site carries some fifty links, two of them documents, and no scheme page or cost norms that a fetch can see.

The Department of Horticulture's address resolves and serves 830 bytes — six links and no content. It also serves it with a certificate our checks reject, so a browser is likely to warn a visitor before it opens. Nothing could be registered.