GUWAHATI: Assam is primarily an agricultural state, but government statistics revealed a concerning picture regarding significant shrinkage in the agricultural land of the state.
As per the statistics from the state government, Assam has seen the shrinkage of 14,412 hectares of cultivated agricultural land in the past seven financial years, i.e., between FY 2016-17 and FY 2022-23.
Assam depends mostly on agriculture, which contributes immensely to the state’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Assam has a total geographical area of 78,438 sq km, i.e., 78,43,800 hectares. Out of this area, 31,14,408 hectares were cultivated agricultural land in the Financial Year 2016-17, which shrank to 30,99,996 hectares in the Financial Year 2022-23. This shows that the total shrinkage of cultivated land was 14,412 hectares within this period.
Surprisingly, the agriculture department of the state does not know the reason why the area of cultivated agricultural land goes on shrinking in the state. Other sources, however, mentioned that over the years, cultivated agricultural land has been used for industrial purposes, and that could be one of the possible reasons for this shrinkage.
The cause of this substantial shrinkage of cultivated agricultural land should be studied properly by the state government.
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