‘Farming since childhood… not a secret’: Union Minister who took subsidy under own ministry’s scheme

The Indian Express investigation had revealed that Bhagirath Choudhary received the Rs 99.60 lakh subsidy three months ago through a scheme under his own ministry and approved by a board in which he is ex officio Vice-President

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“I'm a farmer, and I've been farming since childhood. And the Prime Minister and everyone want farming to be made profitable and advanced,” Choudhary told ANI.

By: Express News Service

3 min readJaipurJun 28, 2026 07:30 AM IST First published on: Jun 28, 2026 at 07:30 AM IST

Following The Indian Express investigation into Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Bhagirath Choudhary lifting a subsidy of nearly Rs 1 crore from a scheme under his own ministry, the minister on Saturday said that he followed all the rules and guidelines, publicly disclosed subsidy details and was using the farm to train other farmers.

The Indian Express investigation had revealed that Choudhary received the Rs 99.60 lakh subsidy three months ago through a scheme under his own ministry and approved by a board in which he is ex officio Vice-President.

The scheme to promote “commercial farming” — on a large scale for profit — of select vegetables and flowers comes under Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH), which was launched in 2014-15 and is administered by the National Horticulture Board (NHB), an autonomous organisation under the administrative control of Choudhary’s Ministry.

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“I’m a farmer, and I’ve been farming since childhood. And the Prime Minister and everyone want farming to be made profitable and advanced,” Choudhary told ANI.

The minister said that there was nothing secretive about his subsidy and added, “The collector came there, the DM of Deedwana-Kuchaman also came, everyone came. They praised it after seeing it. We are taking the farmers there and training them so that they, too, can farm like this. What did I hide?”

Choudhary’s project for cucumber cultivation across 16,592 sq m is one of 467 approved by NHB in 2025 under the scheme titled “Development of Commercial Horticulture through Production and Post-Harvest Management of Horticulture Crops”.

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Official data showed that of the 467 projects, with a total cost of Rs 144 crore and covering an area of 677 acres, that were approved during the financial year 2025-26 under this scheme, there were 60 that received over Rs 50 lakh each as subsidy.

The Indian Express visited the project site at Choudhary’s farm in Peeh village of Rajasthan’s Deedwana-Kuchaman district. Apart from the subsidy amount, the signboard put up at the site — part of a mandatory requirement under the scheme — shows the total cost of the project as “1,99,20,000” (Rs 1.99 crore).

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Choudhary did not respond to a questionnaire sent by The Indian Express; his aide said details of the project would be disclosed to the government.

On March 11, 2026, records show, the project received final clearance from NHB. And, on March 30, a “capital investment subsidy” of Rs 99.03 lakh was credited to Choudhary’s HDFC Bank loan account at Kishangarh in Rajasthan. The records reviewed by this newspaper on the transfer of subsidy do not mention the remaining Rs 57,000 from the amount of “99,60,000” shown on the signboard.