Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Government of India

Pick the scheme that matches your business

• Processing, feed plant, vaccine or drug manufacturing, breed multiplication, waste management or wool processing: AHIDF.
• A breeding unit for poultry, sheep or goats, pigs, or indigenous horses, donkeys and camels: the matching National Livestock Mission component.
• Hay, silage, total mixed ration or fodder block units: the NLM feed and fodder component.
• A dairy cooperative or dairy producer organisation: AHIDF, since dairy cooperatives moved there when the older dairy fund was merged into it in February 2024.

Confirm the scheme is taking applications

Both AHIDF and NLM have end dates in the department's documents that may already have passed, and the department does not say plainly whether new applications are open. Look at the scheme's own portal and the department's scheme page for the latest notice before you spend time on a project report.

How applications work

• Applications for both schemes are made on each scheme's online portal, not by email to the department.
• Funding is tied to a loan. Expect to arrange finance for the unit and to show you can put in your own margin money.

Limits to know about

• Only indigenous breeds qualify under the horse, donkey and camel component.
• The NLM components are built around a minimum unit size, so they do not suit a very small operation.

What reviewers look for

• A unit of the required scale. Each NLM component sets a minimum unit, such as a minimum number of parent layers for poultry or a minimum herd of breeding females for sheep and goats.
• A bankable project. Funding is tied to a loan from a lender, so the project has to stand up to the lender's review as well as the department's.
• Your own contribution. The NLM schemes expect a minimum margin-money share of the project cost from you.

The Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying (DAHD) is one of the departments of the Government of India's Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying. It is based at Krishi Bhawan in New Delhi. For founders, its relevance is a set of schemes that help entrepreneurs build processing, feed, breeding and manufacturing units in the livestock and dairy sector.

What the department does

The department describes itself as responsible for livestock production, preservation, protection from diseases and improvement of stocks, and for dairy development. It is also responsible for the Delhi Milk Scheme and the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB). It came into existence on 1 February 1991, when the animal husbandry and dairy development divisions of the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation were converted into a separate department. It now sits within the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, which was created by a Cabinet Secretariat notification dated 17 June 2019.

Most of what the department runs is aimed at farmers and cooperatives. This page covers only the parts a startup or enterprise can use.

Schemes for entrepreneurs

The Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund (AHIDF) is the main one. It is meant to encourage investment by individual entrepreneurs, private companies, MSMEs, farmer producer organisations, Section 8 companies and dairy cooperatives. It covers dairy processing and value addition, meat processing and value addition, animal feed plants, breed improvement technology and breed multiplication farms, veterinary vaccine and drug manufacturing, animal waste to wealth management, and primary wool processing. Support is tied to a loan from a lender, and the guidelines also provide for a credit guarantee on the facility. The earlier Dairy Processing and Infrastructure Development Fund (DIDF) was merged into AHIDF on 1 February 2024, so dairy cooperatives now go through AHIDF.

The National Livestock Mission (NLM) has an entrepreneurship component that gives a one-time capital subsidy on the project cost, with a cap per unit. We list five parts of it here: rural poultry entrepreneurship, sheep and goat breeding, piggery breeder farms, indigenous horse, donkey and camel breeder farms, and feed and fodder units such as hay, silage, total mixed ration and fodder blocks. Each is built around a commercial unit of a minimum size, so these are schemes for people setting up a business, not backyard farming.

The department also has a scheme that helps dairy cooperatives and farmer producer organisations engaged in dairy activities with working capital, implemented through NDDB. It is meant for those producer-owned institutions rather than for new startups.

Who can apply

AHIDF is open to individual entrepreneurs, private companies, MSMEs, farmer producer organisations, Section 8 companies and dairy cooperatives. The NLM entrepreneurship components are open to individuals, self-help groups, farmer producer organisations, farmers cooperatives, joint liability groups and Section 8 companies, with private entrepreneurs and dairy cooperative societies also named for the feed and fodder component. For the NLM schemes, the entity must be able to put in a minimum share of the project cost as margin money.

Status of the schemes

Check the status before you plan around either main scheme, because the department's own documents do not line up neatly.

For AHIDF, the department's scheme page states the continuation up to the 2025-26 financial year, ending 31 March 2026. The operational guidelines say loans were to be disbursed over three years up to 31 March 2026, that projects sanctioned by then can be disbursed no later than 31 March 2027, and that the fund's sunset date is 31 March 2033. They state an interest subvention rate only for projects sanctioned before 31 March 2023. We could not find a statement of whether fresh applications are being accepted after 31 March 2026.

For NLM, the scheme portal carries a notice that cases approved on or before 31 March 2026 which have not received an instalment must be completed by 30 September 2026 or be cancelled. The portal still shows an apply button, but the department's NLM page gives no end date, so whether new applications are being accepted is unconfirmed.

Locations

The department is located at Krishi Bhawan, Dr Rajendra Prasad Road, New Delhi 110001. Parts of some of its divisions work from the Chanderlok Building on Janpath in New Delhi.