Less than 10% cropped land in Assam gets irrigation despite 12.6 lakh hectare target

Guwahati, Feb 25: There is a huge gap between the irrigation potential created and utilized in the State, with cultivators in less than 10 per cent of total cultivated land getting the benefits of the government schemes despite increasing weather vagaries.

The Irrigation department has created irrigation potential in 8.84 lakh hectares up to March last year, and the “ultimate irrigation potential” of the schemes under the department is said to be 12.6 lakh hectares, according to the State Economic Survey 2025-26.

Ironically, the irrigation potential utilized during the year 2024-25 was 2,50,2931 hectares, down from 2,98,314 hectares in the previous year.

The total cropped area (gross) in the State is around 40.88 lakh hectares in the State, and it means that less than 10 per cent of the agricultural land could be covered by the government irrigation schemes.

General wear and tear of the irrigation schemes coupled with non-availability of regular fund for maintenance and repair works have led to loss of created potential, the survey noted.

Other factors leading to the schemes lying non-functional is erratic power supply in some areas, damage to power lines and transformers, change of river flow with respect surface flow and surface lift irrigation schemes, theft of motors and pumps etc.

The sluggish progress in creating irrigation facilities comes even as the State is increasingly facing adverse impacts of climate change, particularly decreasing rainfall pattern during the Rabi season.

The rainfall deviation during the Rabi season in the year 2022 was minus 40.46 per cent. The deviation was also stark in the 2018 (minus 43 per cent), 2019 (minus 67.6 per cent), 2020 (minus 55.46 per cent) and 2021 (minus 46.97 per cent).

“The State though has the natural potential to drive the agriculture sector, erratic and unpredictable weather conditions and floods have been creating adverse impacts, making the farmers vulnerable to the situations,” the survey noted, adding that towards the goal of increasing cropping intensity and raising crop yield, provisioning of irrigation in the agriculture field is the prime necessity.

A multi-institute study found that in the last 70 years, 91 per cent of the average annual rainfall occurred during pre-monsoon and monsoon seasons, suggesting great dependency on these two seasons for the growth of agriculture sectors. This also led to the suggestion that there is an urgent need to turn to irrigation-based systems from the traditional rainfed ecosystems.

In the study, out of 70 years (1951–2020), 54 years were affected by drought in the month of August in at least one of the 35 total districts in Assam. Similarly, 53 years of the total 70 years were affected by drought in the month of September in minimum one of the 35 total districts. Again, in the 70 years period, every district had witnessed at least seven or five drought years in the month of August and September, respectively.