A power tiller, a government subsidy of ₹1 lakh, and a farmer's face lit with self-reliance — that is the story Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel told on Monday, 5 October 2026, spotlighting Bandubhai Chaudhary, a smallholder from the tribal Dang district of south Gujarat.

In a post shared under the #SevaSankapAbhiyaan and #SevaKiKahani campaign, CM Patel described how Chaudhary received the subsidy under the 'Mukhyamantri Vanbandhu Krishi Yantrikarana Yojana' — the state's flagship agricultural mechanisation scheme for Vanbandhu (forest-dwelling, largely tribal) communities. The grant enabled him to buy a power tiller, a piece of equipment that directly expanded the scale and income of his farming operations. 'Earlier, the absence of a tractor or other equipment had kept his farming limited,' Patel wrote, 'but after receiving this assistance, both the scope of his cultivation and his income have grown.'

Dang district and the Vanbandhu focus

Dang is one of Gujarat's most heavily forested and predominantly tribal districts, home to communities that have historically had limited access to institutional credit and modern farm equipment. The Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojana framework — from which the agricultural mechanisation arm derives its name — was designed specifically to channel welfare and livelihood support to such communities. A power tiller, compact and suited to small and fragmented plots, is precisely the kind of intermediate technology the scheme targets: cheaper than a full tractor, but transformative for a farmer working only a few acres.

₹1 lakh subsidy and what it means on the ground

A ₹1 lakh direct subsidy effectively bridges the gap between a smallholder's savings and the cost of mechanised equipment, reducing dependence on seasonal labour and animal traction. For Chaudhary, the shift is measurable: more land brought under cultivation, more produce, more income. CM Patel's post frames this not merely as welfare but as atmanirbharta — the self-reliance that the Central government's broader economic philosophy champions. Chaudhary is quoted as expressing heartfelt gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whom Patel credits as the guiding force behind 25 years of public service whose 'true fruit' is exactly this kind of grassroots economic empowerment.

Modi's 25-year service milestone as political backdrop

The timing of the post is deliberate. Patel explicitly frames Chaudhary's transformation as '25 varshana sevakaalni sachchi falshruti' — 'the true fruition of 25 years of service' — a reference to PM Modi's political career that stretches from his swearing-in as Gujarat Chief Minister in October 2001 to his current tenure as Prime Minister. The hashtag #SevaSankapAbhiyaan (roughly, 'Mission: Commitment to Service') signals a coordinated outreach effort timed to this anniversary, with BJP leaders across Gujarat amplifying individual beneficiary stories as proof-of-concept for the party's governance record.

For tribal farmers in districts like Dang, access to mechanisation is not an abstraction — it is the difference between subsistence and surplus. If Bandubhai Chaudhary's story is representative, the scheme's architects will argue the numbers speak for themselves.