NHB — National Horticulture Board: Commercial Horticulture Development, CISS Cold-Storage Subsidy, Hortnet Portal and Market Intelligence

The National Horticulture Board (NHB) is the autonomous horticulture bodyof the Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (DA&FW), Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India — set up in April 1984 on the recommendation of the Group on Perishable Agricultural Commodities headed by Dr M. S. Swaminathan and registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 with its head office at Plot No. 85, Sector 18, Institutional Area, Gurugram (Haryana). Its mandate is the integrated development of commercial horticulture — fruits, vegetables, flowers, spices, plantation and aromatic crops — through credit-linked back-ended capital subsidies on integrated production-to-marketing projects and cold-chain infrastructure, technology transfer, human resource development and a real-time horticulture market intelligence service on the Hortnet portal (hortnet.gov.in). Since 2014-15 NHB is administered as one of the five sub-schemes of the Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) and is funded 100% by the Government of India. For the broader index of farmer-welfare programmes see our India government schemes for farmers reference.

Origin and legal basis

NHB was set up in April 1984 as a Government of India initiative to give commercial horticulture a dedicated institutional home — separate from the general agricultural extension architecture — on the recommendation of the Group on Perishable Agricultural Commodities headed by Dr M. S. Swaminathan. It is registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860as an autonomous society of the Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare and is not a statutory corporation created by an Act of Parliament — the same legal form as SFAC, ATMA and several other DA&FW delivery vehicles. NHB is governed by a Board of Directors chaired by the Secretary, DA&FW, with the Managing Director as the chief executive; its head office is at Plot No. 85, Sector 18, Institutional Area, Gurugram - 122 015 (Haryana), with a national network of Field Offices in the horticulturally significant states.

Mandate at a glance

• Commercial horticulture development — promote integrated production-to-marketing projects for fruits, vegetables, flowers, spices, plantation and aromatic crops through credit-linked back-ended capital subsidies.
• Cold-chain and post-harvest infrastructure — capital subsidy on construction, expansion and modernisation of cold storage, Controlled Atmosphere (CA) storage and controlled- atmosphere pack houses under the Capital Investment Subsidy Scheme (CISS).
• Technology development and transfer — introduction of new technologies, elite planting material, precision-farming demonstrations and capacity-building of officers and progressive growers.
• Horticulture Market Information Service (MIS) — daily wholesale arrivals and modal prices from over 350 reporting APMC mandis, disseminated on the Hortnet portal, NHB website, SMS, mobile apps and IVRS.
• Horticulture Promotion Service — awareness, training, exhibitions, farmer-scientist interactions and publication of horticulture handbooks, package-of-practices and market intelligence reports.
• Human Resource Development— Gardener Training, entrepreneurship-development programmes and specialised training on protected cultivation, cold-chain O&M and post-harvest handling.

Flagship NHB schemes

Development of Commercial Horticulture through Production and Post-Harvest Management

NHB's flagship credit-linked back-ended capital subsidy scheme for integrated commercial horticulture projects. It has two sub-components: Part-1: Production — new commercial orchards / plantations of open-field and protected fruits, vegetables, flowers and spices above a project-cost threshold set by the NHB Operational Guidelines — and Part-2: Post-Harvest Management — integrated pack houses, pre-cooling units, ripening chambers, reefer transport, primary processing and value-addition infrastructure attached to the production base. The subsidy quantum is 40% of project cost for general states and 50%for the North-Eastern states, Sikkim, Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Scheduled / Tribal Areas, subject to per-project caps notified in the Operational Guidelines. The subsidy is credit-linked (a term-loan sanction from a scheduled commercial bank / RRB / cooperative bank / NABARD-approved financing institution is a precondition), back-ended (released after project commissioning and JMC inspection) and locked in the borrower's loan account for the specified lock-in period.

Capital Investment Subsidy Scheme (CISS) for cold storage

The Capital Investment Subsidy Scheme (CISS)for Construction / Expansion / Modernisation of Cold Storages and Storages for Horticulture Produce is NHB's dedicated cold-chain window. The scheme covers two project types: Type-1 — conventional and modern cold storage units above 5,000 MT and up to 10,000 MT capacity, with multiple chambers, PUF-insulated panels, bunker / diffuser air-flow and pre-cooling / grading annexes as per NHB technical parameters — and Type-2 — Controlled Atmosphere (CA) storage for apples, kiwi, pears and other CA-responsive fruits, of specified capacity. The subsidy quantum is 35% of project cost for general states and 50%for the North-Eastern states, Sikkim, Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Scheduled / Tribal Areas. Project cost is capped per MT of capacity as per the current NHB CISS Operational Guidelines. Standalone cold-chain projects that are not covered by CISS are typically routed through the Ministry of Food Processing Industries' PMKSY-Integrated Cold Chain scheme instead.

Technology Development and Transfer

NHB funds introduction of new horticulture technologies — elite planting material, high-density orcharding, precision farming, protected-cultivation demonstration blocks, integrated nutrient and pest management demos — through its Field Offices in partnership with state horticulture departments, Krishi Vigyan Kendras and state agricultural / horticultural universities. The component also supports exposure visits, farmer-scientist interactions and publication of package-of-practices tuned to the commercial horticulture segment.

Horticulture Market Information Service (MIS)

NHB operates the country's most granular real-time horticulture market intelligence service — daily wholesale arrivals and modal prices for major fruits, vegetables, flowers, spices and plantation crops from over 350 reporting APMC mandis, published on the Hortnet portal (hortnet.gov.in), the NHB website (nhb.gov.in) and disseminated through SMS, mobile apps and IVRS. The database also carries weekly retail price feeds, monthly crop-wise production estimates and area-under-cultivation trends. It sits alongside the Agmarknetportal run by the Directorate of Marketing & Inspection (DMI) — Agmarknet is the general all-commodity APMC feed; Hortnet MIS is horticulture-specialised and adds production and area estimates.

Horticulture Promotion Service and Human Resource Development

NHB runs a Horticulture Promotion Service that covers awareness campaigns, exhibitions, farmer-scientist interactions and publication of horticulture handbooks and package-of-practices. Its Human Resource Development window supports Gardener Training, entrepreneurship-development programmes and specialised training on protected cultivation, cold-chain operations and post-harvest handling — often delivered in convergence with state agricultural / horti universities, ICAR institutes and Krishi Vigyan Kendras.

Subsidy quantum and project caps

• Development of Commercial Horticulture (Part-1 & Part-2): 40% of project cost for general states; 50% for NE, Sikkim, J&K, Ladakh, HP, Uttarakhand and Scheduled / Tribal Areas. Per-project cost cap as notified in NHB Operational Guidelines.
• CISS cold storage / CA storage:35% for general states; 50% for NE, Sikkim, J&K, Ladakh, HP, Uttarakhand and Scheduled / Tribal Areas. Project cost capped per MT of capacity as per current CISS Operational Guidelines.
• Structure:credit-linked (term-loan sanction required) and back-ended (released after project commissioning and JMC inspection). Subsidy is parked in the borrower's term-loan account with the financing bank for a specified lock-in period.
• Not eligible for the capital subsidy: government departments and their agencies (they can partner with NHB through other programme modes but not draw the credit-linked capital subsidy).

Scale of Indian horticulture

India is the world's second-largest producer of fruits and vegetablesafter China. As per the DA&FW Horticulture Statistics at a Glance, total horticulture production has crossed 350 million tonnes from around 28 million hectares — surpassing food-grain production in volume terms and contributing roughly one-third of agricultural Gross Value Added on a fraction of the cropped area. The bulk of area expansion and productivity gains since NHM (2005-06) and MIDH (2014-15) has come from the open-field production heads at the state end, while NHB has anchored the commercial-scale cold-chain, CA storage and integrated pack-house build-out at the market end.

Hortnet portal — end-to-end application workflow

NHB accepts all subsidy applications online through the Hortnet portal at hortnet.gov.in. The workflow is:

1. Applicant registration. The applicant creates a Hortnet account, links Aadhaar and the term-loan sanctioning bank, and generates an Online Application (OA) reference number.
2. DPR upload and OA submission.The applicant uploads the Detailed Project Report (as per NHB DPR guidelines), banker's term-loan sanction or in-principle appraisal, land title / registered lease, KYC, project cost estimates, technical drawings and — for CISS — chamber-wise capacity and pre-cooling layouts.
3. NHB Field Office inspection. The concerned NHB Field Office issues an Inspection Report on the site, applicant credentials and technical feasibility.
4. Term-loan disbursement and project execution. The financing bank disburses the term loan; the applicant executes the project as per DPR and NHB technical parameters.
5. Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC) inspection. On commissioning, a Joint Monitoring Committee — comprising officers from NHB, the state horticulture department and the financing bank — inspects the completed project, verifies capacity and quality of build, and issues a JMC Report.
6. Project Approval Committee sanction and subsidy release. The JMC Report and subsidy claim are placed before the NHB Project Approval Committee; on approval, the back-ended capital subsidy is released to the financing bank and credited to the borrower's term-loan account for the specified lock-in period.

Who can apply

• Individual farmers and group of farmers with clear title or registered lease of the project land.
• Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) and Farmer Producer Companies — including those promoted under the 10,000 FPO scheme.
• Self-Help Groups (SHGs), cooperatives and cooperative marketing federations.
• Partnership firms, proprietary firms and companies registered under the Companies Act.
• Agri-entrepreneurs — including graduates of the Agri-Clinics and Agri-Business Centres (ACABC) programme.
• NGOs and Public Sector Undertakings — subject to the operational-guideline conditions.

Government departments and their agencies are not eligible for the credit-linked capital subsidy component.

Convergence with the wider portfolio

NHB's instruments are designed to converge with several Government of India programmes to deliver an end-to-end nursery → drip-irrigated commercial orchard → pack house → cold storage → market pipeline:

• MIDH: NHB is one of the five sub-schemes bundled under MIDH from 2014-15 — the commercial- horticulture and cold-chain arm complementing the state-run NHM and HMNEH production arms.
• PMKSY and Per Drop More Crop: drip and sprinkler subsidies on the commercial orchard base that NHB helps establish under Part-1 (Production).
• PM-KUSUM: standalone or grid-connected solar pumps for NHB-supported orchards and pack houses; feeder-level solarisation on horticulture-heavy 11 kV feeders.
• ACABC: ACABC-trained agri-preneurs are among the most active applicant classes on Hortnet — commercial nurseries, integrated pack houses and cold storage promoters routinely combine ACABC credit-linked back-ended subsidy with NHB CISS.
• PMFME: downstream micro-food-processing enterprises for the fruit and vegetable output of NHB-supported production and PHM projects.
• Operation Greens: 50% transport and storage subsidy on Tomato-Onion-Potato and 19 other fruits and vegetables — complements NHB's cold-chain build-out at the storage end.
• Kisan Credit Card: for working-capital needs of the horticulture enterprise once the term-loan-financed asset is commissioned.
• Agmarknet and e-NAM:daily APMC price feeds and electronic trading that sit alongside NHB's Hortnet MIS for horticulture-specialised market intelligence.

How to engage with NHB — step by step

1. Confirm eligibility and project fit. Read the latest NHB Operational Guidelines for Development of Commercial Horticulture and CISS on nhb.gov.in; confirm that your project size crosses the per-project threshold for NHB (smaller projects are typically better routed through the State Horticulture Mission under NHM / HMNEH — see our MIDH deep-dive).
2. Secure land and prepare the DPR. Ensure clear title or a registered lease of the project land for at least the NHB-specified lock-in period; commission a Detailed Project Report using the NHB DPR template — technical, financial and marketing sections.
3. Get a term-loan sanction. Approach a scheduled commercial bank, RRB, cooperative bank or NABARD-approved financing institution for the DPR-appraised term loan; the in-principle sanction letter is a precondition for the Hortnet application.
4. File the Online Application on Hortnet.Register at hortnet.gov.in, upload the DPR, banker's sanction, KYC, land documents and technical drawings; generate an OA reference number.
5. Execute the project. Disburse the term loan; complete construction / plantation as per the DPR and NHB technical parameters; keep photographic and invoice records for the JMC inspection.
6. JMC inspection and subsidy claim. On commissioning, request the Joint Monitoring Committee inspection through Hortnet; submit the subsidy claim with the JMC Report.
7. Subsidy release and lock-in. On sanction by the NHB Project Approval Committee, the back-ended capital subsidy is released to the financing bank and locked in the term-loan account for the specified lock-in period.

Related pages

References

• National Horticulture Board (nhb.gov.in) — corporate portal: Operational Guidelines for Development of Commercial Horticulture and CISS, DPR templates, Field Office directory, Board of Directors and Project Approval Committee decisions.
• Hortnet portal (hortnet.gov.in) — end-to-end online application, DPR upload, JMC scheduling, subsidy-claim tracking and Horticulture Market Information Service (daily wholesale arrivals and modal prices from 350+ APMC mandis).
• MIDH portal (midh.gov.in) — Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture Operational Guidelines and sub-scheme dashboards.
• Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (agriwelfare.gov.in) — Horticulture Statistics at a Glance, MIDH budget circulars and NHB oversight.
• Press Information Bureau (PIB) — Cabinet notifications on MIDH, NHB Operational Guideline revisions and CISS subsidy quantum changes.

Frequently asked questions

What is the National Horticulture Board (NHB)?

The National Horticulture Board (NHB) is an autonomous body of the Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (DA&FW), Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India — set up in April 1984 on the recommendation of the Group on Perishable Agricultural Commodities headed by Dr M. S. Swaminathan and registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 with its head office at Plot No. 85, Sector 18, Gurugram (Haryana). NHB's mandate is to promote the integrated development of commercial horticulture — fruits, vegetables, flowers, spices, plantation and aromatic crops — through credit-linked back-ended capital subsidies on integrated production-to-marketing projects, cold-chain infrastructure, technology transfer, human resource development and a real-time horticulture market intelligence service on the Hortnet portal (hortnet.gov.in). Since 2014-15 NHB is administered as one of the five sub-schemes under the Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) and is funded 100% by the Government of India.

What subsidy does NHB give on cold storage under CISS?

Under the Capital Investment Subsidy Scheme (CISS) for Construction / Expansion / Modernisation of Cold Storages and Storages for Horticulture Produce, NHB provides a credit-linked back-ended capital subsidy of 35% of the project cost for general states and 50% for the North-Eastern states, Sikkim, Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand and for Scheduled / Tribal Areas. Two project types are supported: Type-1 cold storage units above 5,000 MT and up to 10,000 MT capacity with the technical parameters published in NHB CISS guidelines, and Type-2 Controlled Atmosphere (CA) storage of specified capacity. The project cost is capped per MT of capacity as per the current NHB CISS guidelines. The subsidy is back-ended and credit-linked — released after project commissioning and Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC) inspection, and locked in the borrower's term-loan account with the financing bank for a specified lock-in period.

What is the Hortnet portal and how does the online application flow work?

Hortnet (hortnet.gov.in) is NHB's end-to-end online workflow portal for filing subsidy applications and tracking approvals under the Development of Commercial Horticulture and CISS schemes. The workflow is: (1) the applicant registers on Hortnet and files an Online Application (OA) with basic project details; (2) the applicant uploads a Detailed Project Report (DPR), banker's term-loan sanction / in-principle appraisal, land documents, KYC, project cost estimates and technical drawings; (3) the concerned NHB Field Office issues an Inspection Report; (4) a Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC) — comprising officers from NHB, the state horticulture department and the financing bank — inspects the completed project; (5) the JMC report and subsidy claim are placed before the NHB Project Approval Committee; (6) on approval, the back-ended subsidy is released to the financing bank and credited to the borrower's loan account. Every stage generates a Hortnet reference number that both the applicant and the banker can track.

Who is eligible to apply to NHB?

NHB schemes are open to a wide set of applicants: individual farmers, group of farmers, Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) and Farmer Producer Companies, Self-Help Groups (SHGs), partnership firms, proprietary firms, companies registered under the Companies Act, cooperatives and cooperative marketing federations, agri-entrepreneurs (including graduates of the Agri-Clinics and Agri-Business Centres programme), NGOs and public sector undertakings. The applicant must have clear title or a registered lease of the project land for the entire lock-in period, a term-loan sanction from a scheduled commercial bank / RRB / cooperative bank / NABARD-approved financing institution, and a technically sound Detailed Project Report prepared as per NHB DPR guidelines. Government departments and their agencies are not eligible for the credit-linked capital subsidy component.

How is NHB different from MIDH, NHM and HMNEH?

MIDH — Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture — is the umbrella Centrally Sponsored Scheme launched in 2014-15 under which five components are bundled: the National Horticulture Mission (NHM) for general states, the Horticulture Mission for North East & Himalayan States (HMNEH), the National Horticulture Board (NHB), the Coconut Development Board (CDB) and the Central Institute of Horticulture (CIH). NHM and HMNEH are executed by State Horticulture Missions with a 60:40 / 90:10 / 100% Centre-State cost-share pattern, and focus on production interventions (nurseries, area expansion, protected cultivation, primary post-harvest infrastructure) below a per-project cost threshold. NHB, in contrast, is a 100% Government of India sub-scheme, executed directly by NHB Field Offices through the Hortnet portal, and focuses on commercial-scale projects above the SHM threshold — integrated commercial orchards, standalone cold storage and CA storage, controlled-atmosphere pack houses, market-led PHM infrastructure and horticulture market intelligence. In practice, a small farmer takes a polyhouse to the District Horticulture Officer under NHM / HMNEH; a company or FPO setting up a 5,000 MT cold storage applies to NHB under CISS.

What is the Horticulture Market Information Service on Hortnet?

The Market Information Service (MIS) is NHB's real-time horticulture market intelligence programme — daily wholesale arrivals and modal prices for major fruits, vegetables, flowers, spices and plantation crops from over 350 reporting APMC mandis across India, published on the Hortnet portal (hortnet.gov.in), the NHB website (nhb.gov.in) and disseminated by SMS, mobile apps and IVRS. The database also carries weekly retail price feeds, monthly crop-wise production estimates and area-under-cultivation trends. It complements the DMI-run Agmarknet feed and is used by farmers to time harvest and dispatch, by traders and processors to plan procurement, and by planners to design PSF releases under NAFED / NCCF. See our Agmarknet deep-dive for the DMI equivalent that focuses on APMC-level daily arrivals and prices.

NHB's legal form (Societies Act, 1860; April 1984), Gurugram head office, sub-scheme status under MIDH from 2014-15, CISS subsidy quantum (35% general states / 50% NE / hilly / tribal areas), Development of Commercial Horticulture subsidy (40% / 50%), Hortnet portal workflow and Joint Monitoring Committee inspection process above summarise publicly available material on nhb.gov.in, the Hortnet portal at hortnet.gov.in and PIB releases. Project-cost caps, per-MT capacity ceilings, lock-in periods and DPR templates are revised from time to time — applicants and their bankers should verify current NHB Operational Guidelines and CISS parameters before finalising the DPR and committing capital.