Regional Councils under the Participatory Guarantee System for India frequently encounter structural changes within local farming clusters. Operational shifts under schemes such as the Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) and the National Mission on Natural Farming (NMNF) often require reorganising local groups.

When farmer clusters expand beyond manageable sizes or when smaller groups need consolidation to remain viable, Regional Council (RC) administrators must update the central database. This guide details the manual steps required on the PGS India portal (pgsindia-ncof.gov.in) to merge existing groups, split large clusters, and transfer farmers while maintaining accurate certification histories.

How to Manually Merge Two Smaller PGS Local Groups

Combining two or more groups into a single unit requires a systematic transfer of individual farmer profiles followed by the deactivation of the vacated group profile.

  1. Log in to pgsindia-ncof.gov.in using your Regional Council administrative credentials.
  2. Select the target group that will absorb the incoming farmers, or create a new local group record under the standard group setup procedure.
  3. Navigate to the Local Group section and select the source group scheduled for consolidation.
  4. Locate the farmer roster and select the individual farmer profiles slated for transfer.
  5. Use the transfer function to reassign each farmer record to the target group code.
  6. Confirm that all landholding, survey number, and crop history records populate correctly within the target group roster.
  7. Deactivate the empty source group once all active member profiles have been reassigned.
A local group must maintain active peer appraisal history and clear conversion status records before an RC initiates an administrative merger or closure.

For foundational registration workflows before performing modifications, refer to our guide on PGS India Local Group Registration: Setup and Farmer Entry.

Steps to Divide a Large PGS Group into Smaller Units

Clusters exceeding optimal peer appraisal sizes often experience delays in verification. Splitting a large cluster requires establishing new administrative entities and moving selected members manually.

  1. Identify the geographic or operational boundary for the split, such as village or panchayat lines.
  2. Register the new local group profile on the portal under the assigned RC jurisdiction.
  3. Appoint and record the designated Group Leader and Lead Farmer for the newly created entity.
  4. Open the original group roster and filter members assigned to the new territory.
  5. Initiate the manual transfer of each selected farmer to the newly registered group code.
  6. Verify that conversion milestones (Green, PGS-Green, or PGS-India Organic) remain intact post-transfer.
  7. Re-verify the remaining roster in the original group to confirm total acreage and farmer counts align with physical records.

Managing Farmer Transfers and Data Integrity

RC farmer group transfer procedures present risks to certification continuity if handled without verification checks. When changing group affiliations, crop histories, endorsement details, and peer appraisal logs must transfer without data loss.

Reviewing land records, Aadhaar numbers, and survey details manually takes roughly three minutes per farmer profile. For a single group of 20 farmers, this audit takes one hour. For 300 farmers across fifteen restructured groups in a district, it requires 15 hours of repetitive portal entry and verification.

Follow these manual verification steps during every group restructuring:

Maintaining accurate group structures ensures smooth annual reporting and audit compliance under national organic guidelines. KrushiFlow validates these fields and submits farmer records to the portal in bulk.

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