Changed on 21 August 2026. The National Horticulture Board revised its rate of assistance to 35% in general areas and 45% in the North Eastern and Himalayan States, Scheduled Areas and specified Union Territories. Cold storage subsidy is now capped at ₹2.00 crore per project, the cost of land no longer counts as eligible project cost, and only one member of a family may ever claim. Fresh applications have also been paused since 4 September 2026. What changed, in full.
Read this first: the NHB figures on this page come from Annexure VI of the MIDH Operational Guidelines, April 2025, which is headed “National Horticulture Board: proposed changes in components and cost norms”. They are recorded here as written. Confirm the operative position with the National Horticulture Board before spending money.
Both NHB and NHM appear in the same MIDH guidelines document, in different annexures. They are not alternatives you choose between on preference. In most cases the size and financing of your project decides which one you are in.
The dividing lines
| What you are building | NHM (Annexure V) | NHB (Annexure VI) |
|---|---|---|
| Open-field horticulture | Area-based, generally up to 2 hectares per beneficiary | Project mode, area over 2 hectares |
| Protected cultivation | Up to 4,000 square metres per beneficiary | Project mode, area above 4,000 square metres |
| Cold storage | Up to 5,000 MT | Above 5,000 MT and up to 20,000 MT |
The pattern is consistent: where an NHM component stops, the NHB route begins.
How the two feel different in practice
NHM is component-based. You apply for a polyhouse, or a hectare of hybrid vegetables, against a published cost norm and percentage, with a fixed ceiling.
NHB is project-based and credit-linked. You put together an integrated project, usually financed by a bank, and the assistance is a percentage of the eligible project cost with a subsidy ceiling. An NHB open-field project may include planting material, plantation, irrigation, fertigation, mechanisation, precision farming and good agricultural practices in one package.
The rates
NHB commercial horticulture in open field conditions carries credit-linked back-ended subsidy at 35% of project cost in general areas, against a cost of ₹100.00 lakh per project for projects over 2 hectares.
NHB protected cultivation carries credit-linked subsidy at 35% of eligible project cost, with maximum subsidy up to ₹100 lakh per project.
NHB cold storage carries credit-linked back-ended assistance at 35% in general areas, with total subsidy capped at ₹2.00 crore per project.
Which one your project falls into
A one-acre polyhouse sits inside the NHM ceiling of 4,000 square metres. A three-acre protected cultivation project does not, and would be looked at as an NHB project instead, with a bank loan and a project report rather than a simple component application.
Decide the scale first. It changes the paperwork, the financing and the office you deal with.
