Finance Ministry: Notifies poppy-straw cultivation rules, 2026-27

The Centre has notified poppy-straw cultivation licence conditions for 2026-27, retaining an eligibility threshold of 800 kg per hectare from the previous crop while setting a 900 kg per hectare requirement for eligibility in the following year. The Ministry of Finance’s Department of Revenue issued notification G.S.R. 913(E), dated 23 October 2026, for the crop year running from 1 October 2026 to 30 September 2027.

The notification covers cultivation on behalf of the Central Government of opium poppy from which no juice is extracted through lancing. It provides for licences covering five hundredths of a hectare per eligible cultivator and five-crop-year licences for those becoming eligible for this form of cultivation for the first time.

Issued under Rule 8 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Rules, 1985, notification No. 02/2026-Narcotics Control-I governs both continued cultivation by existing licensees and the grant of licences. Cultivation remains restricted to tracts notified by the Centre; these general conditions do not authorise cultivation on any land a farmer chooses.

The yield test for this crop year

Under the Department of Revenue’s notification, existing unlanced poppy-straw cultivators qualify for continued cultivation if they delivered an average yield of at least 800 kg per hectare at the weighment centre during 2025-26, subject to the other eligibility conditions.

Those who delivered less than that threshold are suspended from cultivation during 2026-27. The notification distinguishes this suspension from losing the licence altogether: these farmers retain their licences for the next crop year, but their return to cultivation depends on that year’s policy.

A separate provision allows farmers suspended during 2025-26 because their 2024-25 deliveries were below 800 kg per hectare to become eligible again in 2026-27, provided they meet the other conditions.

The ministry’s latest notification also gives advance notice of a higher yield test. It says cultivators must achieve an average yield of 900 kg per hectare of unlanced poppy capsules with straw during 2026-27 to qualify for licensing in 2027-28.

That distinction between present eligibility and advance warning matters. The Department of Revenue’s previous notification, G.S.R. 623(E), dated 11 September 2025, had also warned of a 900 kg per hectare requirement for eligibility in 2026-27. However, the operative eligibility clause in the new notification expressly uses 800 kg per hectare for deliveries made during 2025-26. The new notification does not explain the difference between the earlier warning and the threshold now prescribed.

Eligibility for farmers previously producing opium gum

The new policy also covers certain cultivators who previously grew poppy for opium gum obtained through lancing, the extraction of juice from the crop. Under this notification, the licensed product instead comes from poppy that has not undergone that extraction.

The Department of Revenue has made farmers with an average morphine yield of at least 3.0 kg per hectare but less than 4.4 kg per hectare from their 2025-26 opium-gum crop eligible for unlanced poppy-straw licences. This is a morphine-yield measure, not the weight of straw delivered.

The corresponding category in the ministry’s 2025-26 policy covered average morphine yields of at least 3.0 kg per hectare but less than 4.2 kg per hectare from the preceding crop. The latest policy therefore raises the upper boundary for this route into poppy-straw cultivation.

Other eligible categories in the new notification include farmers who qualified for a licence in 2025-26 but did not obtain one, and those who obtained a licence but did not cultivate. It separately includes similarly situated farmers eligible for opium-gum cultivation and farmers whose appeals against licence refusal were allowed after the last settlement date in 2025-26.

The notification also provides routes for nominees and legal heirs of deceased eligible cultivators. Where an appropriate nomination is absent, one legal heir may be recognised by the District Opium Officer after following the prescribed process.

One plot and a conditional five-year licence

The Department of Revenue has retained the previous policy’s licensed area of five hundredths of a hectare per eligible farmer. Cultivation must be on one plot, although that plot may extend across more than one revenue survey number. Farmers may be permitted to lease another person’s land to cultivate the licensed area.

The notification allows excess cultivation of up to 5 per cent of the licensed area to be condoned. Separately, eligibility requires that the cultivator did not exceed the permitted 5 per cent tolerance during 2025-26.

For farmers becoming eligible for unlanced poppy-straw cultivation for the first time, the ministry prescribes a five-crop-year licence. A licence issued for 2026-27 under this provision runs through 2030-31.

The term is conditional, rather than an unconditional right to cultivate throughout that period. The notification identifies involvement in illegal activity, being charge-sheeted under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, breaches of departmental cultivation instructions and voluntary surrender as grounds affecting continuation. A charge sheet is an accusation, not a conviction.

The ministry also preserves the Narcotics Commissioner and Deputy Narcotics Commissioner’s powers to issue or withhold licences under the Act and its rules.

Rules for crops ploughed back into the field

The notification includes farmers whose entire crops were ploughed back under Central Bureau of Narcotics supervision in both 2024-25 and 2025-26, provided they had not similarly ploughed back their entire crop in 2023-24.

For that group, the ministry sets a further condition: if they again plough back their entire crop in 2026-27, they will not be eligible for a licence in 2027-28.

The policy also permits fields to be selected for government research, including research conducted with designated institutions or agencies. According to the notification, the research area is excluded when calculating yield. Farmers whose fields are selected remain subject to the minimum qualifying yield and other eligibility requirements when considered for the following year’s licence.

Online applications and payment terms

The Department of Revenue directs that eligible cultivators’ names be uploaded to the Central Bureau of Narcotics website or its online portal, with communication also possible through messages and email. Farmers on the eligibility list are to apply online within the prescribed period. The notification itself does not give a calendar deadline for applications.

Eligible applicants who do not hold five-year licences must provide plot particulars, survey numbers and other information directed by the Narcotics Commissioner in Form No. 1. Existing licensees need not resubmit documents containing information already held by the bureau, but must report changes from the previous year.

For payment, the ministry says farmers delivering unlanced poppy capsules with straw to the government will receive the government-fixed price per kilogram. The notification does not specify that price. It also leaves open the possibility of using morphine content as the basis for payment during 2026-27, but makes this conditional on a government decision; it does not itself put that payment method into effect.