What Bana Kaih is
Bana Kaih — "holding hands" in Mizo — is the Zoram People's Movement (ZPM) government's flagship farmer welfare scheme, launched in September 2024 a year after the new government took office. Unlike most state agri schemes which are subsidy-led, Bana Kaih is structured as a credit-linked entrepreneurship programme — modelled after Telangana's T-Hub and Karnataka's Kalike. The premise is that Mizoram's smallholder profile and high cost-of-input mean that a step-change in cultivator income needs aggregation, value addition and access to working capital, not just headline cash transfers. The scheme provides credit-linked grant up to ₹50 lakh per FPO/agri-entrepreneur, backed by a 5 % interest subvention.
Eligibility
- Mizoram resident farmer, FPO, agri-entrepreneur, livestock value-chain promoter (piggery, poultry, dairy).
- FPO registered under Companies Act / Cooperative Societies Act for at least 6 months.
- ST cultivator with Land Settlement Certificate (LSC) or community-land documentation.
- Project DPR with bankable cashflow, term-loan or working- capital structuring with one of the empanelled banks (MRB, SBI, NABARD, Apex Bank).
Benefit structure
- Credit-linked grant: up to ₹50 lakh per project. Grant component typically 40 % of project cost (cap at ₹20 lakh); remaining 60 % structured as bank loan.
- 5 % interest subvention: on the loan component for the first 3 years (credited to loan account by Agri Dept).
- Capacity building: free training in business plan, accounting, GST, e-commerce, FSSAI compliance.
- Market linkage: state-funded brand development (Brand Mizoram), e-NAM where mandi exists, APEDA export linkage for organic and high-value clusters.
- Convergence: layered with PMFME (food-processing micro-enterprise), AIF (Agri Infra Fund), NLM-EDP (livestock entrepreneurship).
Sub-components
- Crop value chain: ginger, turmeric, bird's- eye chili (Mizo bilhmar), passion fruit, mandarin orange, anthurium.
- Livestock value chain: piggery (LWY breed, 10-50 sow unit), poultry (1,000-5,000 bird unit), mithun-rearing in select districts.
- Fishery: integrated paddy-cum-fish (Mizoram valley), trout in highland streams.
- Food processing: passion fruit pulp, chili powder, organic ginger oil, mandarin marmalade.
How to apply — step by step
- FPO/entrepreneur prepares project DPR with bankable cashflow.
- Submit on agriculture.mizoram.gov.in with Aadhaar, ST, land/community-land documentation, DPR, bank in-principle sanction.
- District Project Sanctioning Committee (chaired by DC, members from Agri, AH, Fisheries, NABARD, Empanelled Bank) reviews within 30 days.
- On sanction, grant tranche-1 (40 %) released to bank account; bank disburses loan tranche; tranches-2/3 against milestone verification.
- Interest subvention credited to loan account quarterly by Agri Dept.
Latest changes (2024 — 2026)
- September 2024: Scheme launched by CM Lalduhoma; initial corpus ₹100 cr (state).
- December 2024: First 32 projects sanctioned; ginger and passion fruit FPOs dominate the inaugural cohort.
- March 2025: NABARD tied up with state for additional ₹100 cr refinance corpus.
- September 2025: PMFME convergence formalised; food-processing micro-enterprises within Bana Kaih can stack both grants.
- 2025-26 outlay: ₹150 cr state share + ₹150 cr NABARD refinance.
Common rejection / under-performance reasons
- DPR cashflow non-bankable: most common rejection cause — projected revenue not aligned with market reality.
- Bank in-principle sanction missing: cannot proceed without a bank's preliminary buy-in on the loan component.
- FPO registration vintage short: 6-month minimum vintage required.
- Land documentation incomplete: LSC or community-land documentation must be uncontested.
- Duplicate-claim: project already drawing PMFME/AIF for the same line item cannot stack Bana Kaih grant beyond 60 % combined subsidy ceiling.
Coverage statistics
As of Q1 2025, ~95 projects had been sanctioned with cumulative grant commitment ~₹35 cr and bank loan ~₹55 cr. Sectorally, crop value chain accounted for 50 % of projects (ginger, passion fruit, chili), livestock 25 % (piggery dominant), fishery 10 % and food processing 15 %. State target by FY 2026-27: 500 projects with cumulative grant ~₹150 cr and beneficiary FPOs/entrepreneurs covering ~25,000 households.
How Bana Kaih stacks with other schemes
Bana Kaih is the credit + entrepreneurship engine. It converges with NLUP (post-jhum settled cultivation), Organic Mizoram (organic certification on Bana Kaih clusters), and centrally with PMFME, AIF, NLM-EDP and 10,000 FPOs. The 5 % interest subvention stacks with KCC MISS 4 % where KCC working capital is also drawn.