Odisha Pays ₹60,575 a Year for Fisheries Students

If you are studying fisheries science in Odisha — B.Sc. (Fisheries Science), the B.F.Sc. degree, M.Sc. (Fisheries Science) or a Diploma in Fisheries Science — and your parent is a CM-KISAN beneficiary, the state will pay a large part of your course fees. The Krishi Vidya Nidhi Yojana, launched on 20 September 2025 under Odisha’s CM-KISAN scheme, covers tuition and hostel costs for children of farmers registered under CM-KISAN, and fisheries degrees are explicitly on its official covered-courses list. For a B.FisherySc. student in a private college, the capped support is ₹60,575 a year, plus a hostel and mess allowance of ₹1,200 a month for 10 months.

The timing matters. The Odisha State Scholarship Portal opens for this scheme twice a year, and scheme guides expect the second 2026-27 window in November 2026 — the month we are in now. No exact closing date for this window has been published in the scheme guides, so treat this as a “check the portal today” alert rather than a dated deadline: open scholarship.odisha.gov.in, find Krishi Vidya Nidhi Yojana under the Agriculture & Farmers’ Empowerment Department, and confirm the live dates on the scheme page itself before you plan around them.

Krishi Vidya Nidhi Yojana at a glance

Item	Detail
Scheme	Krishi Vidya Nidhi Yojana (Krushi Vidya Nidhi), a component of CM-KISAN
Run by	Department of Agriculture & Farmers’ Empowerment, Government of Odisha
Who it is for	Children of eligible CM-KISAN beneficiaries (small & marginal farmers, landless agricultural households)
Launched	20 September 2025, under the CM-KISAN scheme
Fisheries courses covered	B.Sc. (Fisheries Science), M.Sc. (Fisheries Science), Diploma in Fisheries Science (official myScheme list)
Levels covered	ITI / Diploma / Polytechnic / UG / PG / PhD in professional & technical courses; support for a maximum duration of five years
Top support	One-time ₹1,00,000 for premier institutions outside the state (myScheme) — see the note on premier-institution figures below
Hostel & mess	₹1,200/month for 10 months (UG, PG, PhD, premier institutes); ₹1,000/month for diploma/ITI
How to apply	Online only, at scholarship.odisha.gov.in — no physical applications
Payment	Direct Benefit Transfer to the student’s Aadhaar-linked bank account
2026-27 windows	First window August 2026; second window expected November 2026 (exact closing date to be confirmed on the portal)

What a fisheries student actually gets

The amount depends on the type of institution and the course. In government institutions, the scholarship covers the actual tuition fees, annual fees, one-time fees and hostel charges you paid — refundable charges such as caution money are not covered. For premier government institutions such as NIT, IIT, IIM, AIIMS and ICAR institutes (which include ICAR-CIFE, Mumbai, India’s premier fisheries university), scheme guides describe the support as the institute’s actual recommended fees or ₹1,00,000 a year, whichever is lower.

A note on the premier-institution figures, because the official page is unclear here. The Government of India’s myScheme page for this scheme lists two different one-time premier-institution amounts without explaining how they relate: ₹1,00,000 for students admitted to premier government institutions outside the state, and ₹4,00,000 for premier government institution students “for reimbursement of fees and mess expenses”. This post does not present either figure as the amount you will personally receive — if you are heading to a premier institution, confirm the exact figure in the scheme guidelines (Annexure-1) or with the Agriculture Department before you count on it. The ₹60,575 figure for B.FisherySc. in the table below comes from the scheme’s published capped-fee structure, not from the myScheme summary page.

For private institutions, the scheme pays a capped amount per course. The fisheries figures are:

Course	Duration	Maximum support per year (private institutions)
B.FisherySc.	4 years	₹60,575
M.Sc. (Ag/Hort/Fish/Forest)	2 years*	₹35,835
B.Sc. (Hons.) Agriculture / Horticulture / Forestry	4 years	₹60,575
B.V.Sc. & A.H.	4 years	₹77,895
B.Tech / B.E.	4 years	₹60,000
MBA	2 years	₹65,000

*The scheme’s capped-fee table lists M.Sc. (Ag/Hort/Fish/Forest) at ₹35,835 per year; the table’s printed duration for this row is 4 years, which appears to be a listing error for a 2-year master’s — the amount, not the duration, is what matters for your application.

On top of the fee support, every UG, PG, PhD and premier-institute student gets a hostel and mess allowance of ₹1,200 a month for 10 months — ₹12,000 a year. Diploma, polytechnic and ITI students get ₹1,000 a month for 10 months (₹10,000 a year). For a B.FisherySc. student in a private college, that is up to ₹60,575 in fees plus ₹12,000 in hostel support: ₹72,575 a year at the maximum.

Who qualifies — the five checks

Odisha domicile. The student must be a permanent resident of Odisha. Children of beneficiaries who live outside Odisha are not eligible.
Class 10 and Class 12 passed. The official eligibility list requires the applicant to have passed Class 10 and Class 12 from recognised educational institutions.
A CM-KISAN parent. Your parent must be a registered beneficiary under CM-KISAN, under either of its two components: support to farmers for cultivation (small and marginal farmers) or livelihood support to landless agricultural households. The parent’s CM-KISAN status is verified at the Chief District Agriculture Officer (CDAO) level during your application — so confirm your parent’s beneficiary status before you apply, not after.
Merit-based admission. You must have secured admission on merit in a government institution, a private institution in Odisha with a valid AISHE code, or a premier government institution (NIT, IIT, IIM, AIIMS, ICAR) inside or outside Odisha. Private institutions outside Odisha are not eligible. For premier institutions outside the state, admission must be through a national-level entrance examination.
One course, one scholarship. You can take the scholarship for only one professional course, and you cannot hold another scholarship at the same time. If you are already receiving one, you must shift to Krishi Vidya Nidhi.
All categories, no income limit. The scheme is open to SC, ST, OBC, EBC, SEBC and General students. There is no separate income ceiling — the parent’s CM-KISAN beneficiary status is the qualifying condition.

What CM-KISAN is — and why it is the key

Krishi Vidya Nidhi is not a standalone scheme. It is a component of CM-KISAN, Odisha’s farmer income-support scheme, launched on 8 September 2024 as the successor to KALIA (Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation). Under CM-KISAN, small and marginal farmers — those with up to about 2 hectares of cultivable land — receive ₹4,000 a year in two instalments of ₹2,000, paid around Akshaya Tritiya and Nuakhai, on top of ₹6,000 a year from the central PM-KISAN scheme, taking their combined annual support to ₹10,000. Landless agricultural households receive ₹12,500 as one-time livelihood assistance, released in three instalments of ₹5,000, ₹5,000 and ₹2,500, for allied work such as goat rearing, poultry, duckery, fishery, mushroom cultivation or beekeeping.

The fifth CM-KISAN instalment was released on 4 September 2026 — over ₹833 crore to more than 41 lakh farmers at ₹2,000 each, according to scheme trackers; a separate state release put the same-day figure at more than ₹733 crore to over 12 lakh farmers and landless households. The two figures describe different beneficiary counts in the same release, so this post does not present either as the single official total. What matters for a fisheries student is simpler: if your parent is on the CM-KISAN beneficiary list, the door to Krishi Vidya Nidhi is open. If your parent is not registered, the CM-KISAN portal has been open for new farmer registration since 6 July 2026 — but registration alone does not make you eligible for this academic year’s scholarship window, so check the portal’s rules for your case.

The track record: a five-fold jump in one year

This is not a scheme that exists only on paper. Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, speaking at the PM-KISAN 24th instalment programme in Bhubaneswar on 30 October 2026, gave the scheme’s own numbers — and they show a sharp expansion:

Academic year	Students who received the scholarship	Amount disbursed
2024-25	13,923	₹53.69 crore
2025-26	68,910	₹291.60 crore

That is nearly a five-fold rise in both students and money in a single year. The 2024-25 break-up, reported when the figures were first released in March 2025, shows where the money went: 592 students in medical courses, 4,592 in engineering, 4,574 in polytechnic, 1,417 in nursing, 510 in MCA and 174 in agriculture and allied sector courses — including 55 students from premier institutions such as NIT and IIM. (One early report put the 2024-25 total at ₹53.57 crore rather than ₹53.69 crore; this post uses the Chief Minister’s 30 October 2026 figure of ₹53.69 crore, and the difference is a rounding-level discrepancy in secondary reporting, not a change in the scheme.)

The agriculture and allied share — 174 students in 2024-25 — is small, and that is exactly the point for a fisheries student: this is a large, growing scheme in which fisheries students are eligible but under-represented. A B.F.Sc. student whose parent is a CM-KISAN beneficiary is precisely the student this scheme was written for.

How to apply — step by step

Applications are online only, through the Odisha State Scholarship Portal. Physical applications are not accepted.

Go to scholarship.odisha.gov.in and click on Login. New users click Student Login, then Register Here.
Register with Aadhaar. Enter your Aadhaar number, get the OTP on your Aadhaar-registered mobile number, and validate it. Complete the registration form and create a password; a unique login number will be generated.
Log in and find the scheme. Go to the Schemes section, select Krishi Vidya Nidhi Yojana, and click Apply Now.
Fill in the form. Personal details, your parent’s CM-KISAN beneficiary details, course information, institution details and bank account information. Your bank account must be in your own name, with a scheduled bank, and Aadhaar-linked — wrong or mismatched bank details are the most common cause of payment delays.
Upload documents in PDF or JPG format (see the checklist below).
Complete Aadhaar-based face authentication. This step is mandatory.
Review, submit, and save your Application Reference Number and receipt.
Follow up on verification. Your institution’s head verifies your enrolment, roll number, hosteller or day-scholar status and confirms you hold no other scholarship. Then the CDAO verifies your parent’s CM-KISAN status and the scholarship amount. Only after both verifications does the Director of Agriculture & Food Production, Odisha, release the money by DBT. Chase your college’s scholarship in-charge — verification is where applications stall.

Documents to keep ready

The official myScheme page lists ten documents. Keep them scanned and ready before you start:

Aadhaar card of the student (mandatory — face authentication is required)
Residential certificate
Income certificate
Class 10 certificate / marksheet
Class 12 certificate / marksheet
CM-KISAN Card of the parent
Admission letter / bonafide certificate from your current institution
Admission fee receipt / fee structure
Bank passbook — in the student’s name, Aadhaar-linked, with IFSC code
Passport-sized photograph

Scheme guides additionally suggest keeping a caste certificate (SC/ST/OBC/SEBC/EBC) if applicable, your last academic year’s marksheet for renewals, and a day-scholar / hosteller declaration for your institution to verify. Your bank account must be in your own name, with a scheduled bank, and Aadhaar-linked — wrong or mismatched bank details are the most common cause of payment delays.

The deadline question — read this carefully

Scheme guides agree that the portal opens twice a year and that the second 2026-27 window is expected in November 2026. They do not agree on an exact closing date: one guide says November, another says November or December, and a third notes recent cycles closed between November and December. The portal’s own schedule page is the only authoritative source for the live date, and this post does not invent one. What the pattern tells you is this: the window is short, it falls in November–December, and it will not wait for you. If you are eligible, apply in the first days it is open, get your institution’s verification done promptly, and do not leave the CDAO check to the last week.

Two cautions. First, do not confuse this scheme with the National Scholarship Portal: NSP’s student window for 2026-27 closed on 31 October 2026, and November on NSP is verification month, not application month. Krishi Vidya Nidhi is a separate, state-run route on a separate portal. Second, if you missed NSP, this is a live alternative for Odisha students — but only if your parent is a CM-KISAN beneficiary. If your parent is not, your route is a different state or central scheme, not this one.

Frequently asked questions

Does Krishi Vidya Nidhi cover B.F.Sc. and M.F.Sc.?
Yes. The official myScheme course list names B.Sc. (Fisheries Science) — the B.F.Sc. degree — M.Sc. (Fisheries Science) and a Diploma in Fisheries Science. Premier-institute support also covers ICAR institutes, which include CIFE Mumbai.

Is there an income limit?
No separate income ceiling. The qualifying condition is your parent’s CM-KISAN beneficiary status, verified by the CDAO.

Can I apply if I already have another scholarship?
No — you cannot hold two scholarships at once. You would have to shift to Krishi Vidya Nidhi, so compare the amounts before you switch.

Can I apply for a private college outside Odisha?
No. Private institutions must be within Odisha and have a valid AISHE code. The exception is premier government institutions (NIT, IIT, IIM, AIIMS, ICAR), which are eligible inside or outside the state.

How long does the scholarship continue?
It is renewed each year and continues until your course is completed, provided you keep meeting the eligibility rules and pass your exams. The official myScheme page states the scheme supports students for a maximum duration of five years.

How long does the money take?
Scheme guides report a wait of roughly 3–6 months after verification before DBT reaches your account. Apply early and keep your bank details correct.