Guwahati: A nuanced shift in Assam’s agricultural profile has emerged, with a slight contraction in total agricultural land juxtaposed against a substantial expansion in irrigated areas, as revealed by Irrigation Minister Ashok Singhal within the Assam Legislative Assembly.
The minister’s disclosure, delivered in response to inquiries from Independent MLA Akhil Gogoi, detailed the evolving dynamics of the state’s farming sector.
The data presented by Singhal indicated that Assam’s gross agricultural land, which encompassed 35.09 lakh hectares in the fiscal year 2015-16, experienced a marginal reduction, settling at 34.94 lakh hectares by 2024-25. This minor decrease in overall agricultural land was accompanied by a subtle uptick in net agricultural land, which rose from 28.01 lakh hectares to 28.62 lakh hectares over the same nine-year period.
Conversely, the state’s irrigation infrastructure witnessed a remarkable surge. The net irrigated land, which stood at 3.25 lakh hectares in 2015-16, along with a gross irrigated land of 4.55 lakh hectares, representing 11.60 percent of the total agricultural area, has seen a dramatic expansion. By 2024-25, the net irrigated land had more than doubled to 6.95 lakh hectares, and the gross irrigated land had increased to 8.80 lakh hectares, now covering 24.28 percent of the state’s agricultural land.
Minister Singhal attributed the data for 2015-16 to the Statistical Handbook, 2017, and the irrigation department’s records, while the figures for 2024-25 were derived from the department’s most recent documentation, highlighting the evolving nature of Assam’s agricultural practices and infrastructure.
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