A Local Group (LG) registered under the Participatory Guarantee System for India (PGS-India) enters a dormant state when it fails to upload annual peer appraisal records. The portal (pgsindia-ncof.gov.in) automatically applies this status once the 12-month renewal window lapses. This lock applies equally across groups supported under the Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) and the Mission Organic Value Chain Development for North Eastern Region (MOVCDNER).
When a group is marked dormant, the portal restricts all active operations for its member farmers. Data operators cannot add new crops, submit seasonal inspection summaries, or process annual certificate renewals. Regional Council (RC) operators attempting to edit records will encounter the portal error: operation not allowed local group is dormant.
This guide sets out the official procedure for Regional Councils to evaluate inactive clusters, complete offline verifications, and execute the endorsement workflow on the PGS portal. Following this sequence restores active operations without resetting the conversion years already earned by member farmers.
Why Groups Become Dormant on the PGS Portal
The PGS framework requires an annual cycle of mutual farmer inspections followed by data submission. The portal monitors submission dates automatically against the central database.
A Local Group that does not record a completed peer appraisal summary within 12 months of its last approved certificate is classified as dormant. All data entry rights are locked until the Regional Council submits a formal reactivation endorsement.
This lock triggers several downstream operational blocks:
- Individual farmer peer appraisal sheets cannot be uploaded individually or in batches.
- New farmer enrolments to the group are blocked.
- Annual group scopes and organic status updates (Conversion Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, or PGS-Green/PGS-Organic) are frozen.
- Transaction certificates for harvesting batches cannot be approved by the RC.
For operations handling wide cluster enrolments, refer to the manual steps in Bulk Data Submission on PGS India: 4 RC Steps.
Physical Audit Verification and Offline Justification
A dormant status cannot be cleared online without verified physical records. The Regional Council must confirm that farming practices remained compliant during the inactive period before updating the portal.
Before logging into the administrative portal, the RC field officer must gather and verify physical documentation from the group leadership:
- Collect the physical Peer Appraisal Summary Sheet signed by all participating farmers in the cluster.
- Verify the meeting register containing the Local Group resolution requesting reactivation.
- Inspect the continuous farm diary records for input usage, seed provenance, and pest management logs for the missed seasons.
- Execute a physical random check on at least ten percent of member farm plots to confirm non-use of prohibited synthetic inputs during the lapsed period.
- Prepare an RC Scrutiny Note confirming that the lapse was administrative rather than a failure of organic integrity.
Verifying physical appraisal sheets, cross-referencing survey numbers, and checking input registers by hand takes approximately 20 minutes per farmer file. For a standard PKVY group of 20 farmers, this audit takes under seven hours. For an RC managing 40 dormant groups comprising 800 farmers across two districts, the manual physical verification and dossier check requires 260 working hours before portal entry begins.
RC Portal Procedure to Reactivate Inactive Local Groups
Once the physical audit dossier is signed by the RC authorised signatory, the administrative operator can lift the suspension on the portal. Follow these exact steps within the RC portal interface:
- Log in to the PGS-India portal using Regional Council administrative credentials.
- Navigate to the Local Group Management tab on the main dashboard.
- Select the Inactive / Dormant Clusters filter from the status dropdown menu to display locked groups.
- Locate the target group using its unique Local Group Registration Code.
- Click on the Action menu and select Review Suspension / Dormant Status.
- Upload the scanned RC Scrutiny Note and the consolidated Peer Appraisal Summary in PDF format.
- Select the appropriate reactivation reason code: Administrative Delay, Operational Transition, or Natural Calamity.
- Verify the baseline conversion year for each member farmer. Ensure the system retains the earned conversion history rather than resetting fields to Year 1.
- Click Endorse Reactivation and sign the submission using the RC Digital Signature Certificate (DSC) or registered mobile OTP verification.
After successful endorsement, the portal updates the cluster status to Active. The group operator can immediately access member dashboards, upload pending seasonal data, and apply for the updated scope certificates.
KrushiFlow validates these fields and submits farmer records to the portal in bulk.