Irrigation department in Assam fails to meet farmers’ needs

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI: The Irrigation Department in Assam continues to fall short of playing the role that the agriculture sector in the state needs. The department has simply failed to rise to the occasion to meet the needs of the farmers.

From March 1 to May 10 this year, Assam has witnessed scanty rainfall, 35 percent less than normal rainfall during this period. The farmers in the state have been bearing the brunt in the fields. The state has around 38.8 lakh hectares of arable land, and irrigation covers just 11.03 lakh hectares of them, but only 5.5 lakh hectares of such lands get irrigated water. The reason behind this is that most of the irrigation projects in the state are defunct due to poor upkeep.

According to official sources, around 1,580 irrigation schemes have been defunct at various stages in the state. These defunct projects need huge amounts of funding for their maintenance to be operational. 

The state has mainly three types of irrigation systems: surface flow irrigation systems, surface lift irrigation systems, and groundwater lift irrigation systems. Apart from these, under the Prime Minister Kishan Sambriddh Yojana, tubewells have been installed for irrigation purposes. 

The reasons behind the huge gap between the irrigation potential created and the irrigation potential utilised are: schemes lying defunct due to a shortage of funds, erratic power supply, pilferage of motors and other parts of machinery used in schemes, changes in river courses in the case of surface flow and surface lift irrigation schemes, etc.

To do away with all such hiccups, the government constituted a state-level coordination committee comprising the irrigation, agriculture, and allied departments, up to the district level. However, the expected outcome of this measure continues to elude the farmers in the state.

According to sources, agriculture plays a crucial role in the Assam economy, and the availability of a reliable irrigation facility is the most significant prerequisite for sustainable development in the agriculture sector. In spite of the rich water resources in the state, irrigation has become highly essential because of adverse and unpredictable weather conditions, including floods, erosion, drought-like situations, etc.

According to sources, the state government, as often as not, lays stress on multiple cropping to raise farmers’ income. This is an area where irrigation can facilitate crop diversification and allow for multiple cropping cycles, contributing significantly to the overall economic stability of the agricultural sector.

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