CHAPTER - IV
Agriculture

4.1.0 Agriculture occupies a vital position in the State’s economy engaging about 53 per cent of the total working force, according in 2001 Census. The contribution of this Sector in State Domestic Product (SDP) at constant and current prices are 31.08 per cent and at 31.13 per cent respectively in 2002-2003. All the agricultural programmes have been assigned with high priority in the Successive plan periods for efficient use of available resources and to maximise production. These efforts have no doubt resulted some transformation in the pace of development under this sector, but much more still remains to be done to bring the situation compatible with other developed States of the country.

4.1.1 The soil, topography, rainfall and climatic condition of Assam are congenial for cultivation of paddy, which covers nearly 70 per cent of the gross cropped area and more than 90 per cent of the total area under foodgrains. The soil of the State is acidic in reaction having Ph (phosphorous content per hydrogen ion) between 4.5 and 6.5 except the new alluvial soils, which are neutral in reaction (Ph 6-7). The soils of the foothills are also strongly acidic (Ph 4.5-5.0) whereas the remaining areas are less acidic (Ph 5-6). As regards neutral status, phosphate contents are low while nitrogen and potash contents are medium. The major soil groups are (i) new alluvial soil (ii) old alluvial soil, (iii) old mountain valley alluvial soil, (iv) non-laterised red soil, and (v) laterised red soil.

The State can be divided into three broad physiographic units, viz., (1) the Brahmaputra Valley in the north, (ii) the Barak Valley in the South, and (iii) the Hills region that lies in between the two valleys.

The Brahmaputra Valley is an alluvial plain surrounded by hills except in the western side. The Brahmaputra river has entered the plain area near Sadiya in Tinsukia district in the east flowing towards west through the middle of the State and then turned down towards south to enter the plain area of Bangladesh. The Brahmaputra Valley has a gradual slope from east to west. At Sadiya, the easternmost point of the State, the altitude is 134 metres above sea level, at Dibrugarh, it is 104 metres, at Guwahati the Altitude is 50 metres and at Dhubri, the western point, the same is 35 metres. The Barak Valley mainly consists of flat plain areas of the Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi districts, which is about 190 Kms. Long, and 96 Kms. Wide surrounded by hills on the three sides. The Hills region includes Karbi-Anglong and North Cachar Hills.

The agriculture is mainly dependent on rainfall. The State belongs to rainfall belt where rainfall varies from 80 to 1580 mm during different periods of the year. Sufficient rainfall occurs mainly during the Kharif season which is beneficial for growing paddy, the principal crop of the State Similarly Jute cultivation also gets sufficient rainfall in pre-monsoon period.

The State experiences hot and humid climate as high as 85.90 per cent or more in the majority of the districts. Variation of temperature with a maximum of 30⁰C to 33⁰C, and minimum of 6⁰C to 12⁰C is also noticed in different parts of the State.

4.1.2 The prospect of Kharif Rice during 2002-2003 appears to be not upto the expectation due to occurrence of floods during the period from mid June to mid July. It may be mentioned here that floods occurred in as many as 21 districts of the State affecting 6,16,793 cultivator families in 6974 villages. It caused extensive damage to Rice crops and other crops covering an estimated area of about 3.98 lakh hectares. The crop damages of 50 per cent and above have been estimated at 3.82 lakh hectares, out of which the damage to Rice Crop alone account for 3.60 lakh hectares. The value of overall crop loss is estimated at Rs 505.04 crore.

4.1.3 It is observed that there has been a gradual decline in the area coverage under Autumn Rice in the State in recent years. During 2002-2003, the area coverage under Autumn Rice fell to 4.64 lakh hectares from the area of 4.96 lakh hectares in 2001-2002. This is due to diversion of area under Autumn Rice to the area under other crops during the year. Area under Winter Rice, the principal Kharif crop, increased marginally to 17.49 lakh hectares in 2002-2003 from 17.15 lakh hectares in 2001-2002.

During Kharif season oilseeds crops like Sesamum, Castor, Groundnut and Soyabean are grown in the State, which together comprise about 6 per cent of the total oilseeds production of the State. It is observed that the area under Kharif oilseeds also slightly fell to 0.22 lakh hectares in 2002-2003 from 0.25 lakh hectares in the year 2001-2002. The area under Jute, the most important fibre crop grown in the State remained at the same level with 0.68 lakh hectares in 2002-2003. Likewise, the area under Mesta also remains at the lat year’s level at 0.05 lakh hectares. On the other hand, the area under Sugarcane has fallen to 0.25 lakh hectares from 0.27 lakh hectares during the previous year.

The area coverage under Rubi crops in the State is around 27 per cent of the total area during 2002-2003. Out of the total area under Rubi crops, around 48 per cent of the area is covered by Rape and Mustard and Summer Rice. The other Rabi crops in the State are Wheal, Rabi pulses, Oilseeds and Vegetables. An important feature of agricultural front of the State is that the area under Summer Rice, the principal crop of the Rabi season has been increasing over the years due to increasing installation of shallow tube wells under departmental programmes.

During 2002-2003, the area under Summer Rice increased to 3.27 lakh hectares from 3.26 lakh hectares in 2001-2002. The area under Rape and Mustard during 2002-2003 has gone down to 2.61 lakh hectares from 2.72 lakh hectares in 2001-2002. However, the area under total Rabi Oilseeds has increased to 3.17 lakh hectares in 2002-2003 from the level of 3.14 lakh hectares covered in the previous year.

4.1.4 The total production of food-grain crops in the State has been estimated at 38.94 lakh tonnes during 2002-2003 as against 40.23 lakh tonnes during 2001-2002 showing a decrease of 3.20 per cent over the previous year. This is due to decrease in production of Rice, the most important cereal crop grown in the State.

The production of Autumn Rice, Winter Rice and Summer Rice has decreased to 4.45 lakh tonnes, 26.71 lakh tonnes and 6.22 lakh tonnes respectively in 2002-2003 from the level of 4.88 lakh tonnes, 27.13 lakh tonnes and 6.53 lakh tonnes respectively in the year 2001-2002. Similarly, the production of Wheat also showed a downward trend to 0.78 lakh tonnes in 2002-2003 from 0.85 lakh tones in 2001-2002.

As regard to cash crops, mention may be made to increase in production of Jute at the level of 6.91 lakh bales in 2002-2003 over 6.75 lakh bales during 2001-2002. Mesta also recorded a marginal increase of 0.25 lakh bales during the year over the production level of 0.24 lakh bales in 2001-2002. It is observed that Sugarcane recoded a decrease of 9.16 lakh tonnes in 2002-2003 form 10.11 lakh tonnes during 2001-2002. The production of Rape and Mustard also decreased to 1.30 lakh tonnes in 2002-03 from 1.37 lakh tonnes during 2001-2002. The crop-wise area and production fro the years 2001-2002, 2002-2003 and target for 2003-2004 are furnished in table 4.1.

TABLE – 4.1
CROP-WISE AREA AND PRODUCTION
(Area in thousand hectares)
(Production in thousand tonnes unless otherwise stated)

YIELD RATE:

4.2.0 The productivity of important crops in the State showed unsatisfactory results during 2002-2003 as compared to the yield rates in the previous two years, due to weather aberration during the crop season, Rainfall in Assam was above normal from March/02 to July/02 and was below normal during August/02 to October/02, affecting the crop seasons during the year. The table 4.2 shows the trend.

TABLE – 4.2
YIELD RATE OF CERTAIN CROPS IN ASSAM (Kg./Hectare)

AREA UNDER HIGH YIELDING VARIETY (HYV):

4.3.0 The area under High Yielding Variety (HYV) of Rice has been showing a gradual increase over the years, the total area under HYV of Rice (Autumn, Winter and Summer), which stood at 12.01 lakh hectares during 1996-97, has increased to 14.82 lakh hectares during 2001-2002. The newly introduced high yielding varieties of Rice are Ranjit, Bahadur, Masuri, Luit, Chilarai, IR-50 and IR-36, etc. The table-4.3 shows areas under different HYV Rice from 1995-96 to 2000-2001.

TABLE – 4.3
AREA UNDER HIGH YIELDING VARIETY RICE IN ASSAM (In hectares)

LAND AND UTILISATION STATISTICS:

4.4.0 The provisional estimates of land utilisation statistics of the State for the year 1999-2000 indicates that Assam has an estimated 40.87 lakh hectares Gross Cropped Area, of which, Net Area Sown is above 27.34 lakh hectares and the area sown more than once stands at 13.53 lakh hectares during the year. Thus, the ratio of Area Sown More Than Once to the Net Area Sown is 49.5 per cent in 1999-2000 as against 45.9 per cent in 1998-99 and 45.2 per cent in 1997-98.

INDEX OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION:

4.5.0 The Index of Agricultural Production (base Triennium ending 1981-82=100) for the State stands at 165 (Provisional Estimate) in 2002-2003 as against 164 in 2001-2002. The all India Agricultural Production Index (based Triennium ending 1981-82=100) stands at 156 (Provisional Estimate) in 2002-2003 as against 177 in 2001-2002. The table 404 shows the trend in agricultural production in the State as well as in the country as a whole, based on the Index of agricultural products for the last few years.

TABLE – 4.4
INDEX OF AGRICUTURAL PRODUCTION IN ASSAM AND INDIA
(Base: Triennium ending 1981-82=100)

AGRICULTURAL HOLDING:

4.6.0 As per Agricultural Census, 1995-96, there were 26.8 lakh (Revised) operational holdings in the State covering an area of about 31.4 lakh (Revised) hectares of land. Compared with the figures of the earlier Census, 1990-91, the number of operational holdings during 1995-96 were higher by 6.33 per cent and operated area were declined by 2.07 per cent. The marginal holdings with less than 1 (one) hectare of land accounted for 62.22 per cent of the total holdings and 19.80 per cent of the total operated area of the State in 1995-96. In case of small holdings with size class between 1-2 hectares, the share turned out to be 20.91 per cent of the total holdings and 24.52 per cent of the total operational area. On the other hand, the large holdings (20 hectares and above) constituted only 0.19 per cent of the total number of operational holdings, with 10.47 per cent of the total operated area in the State. An important feature revealed by the Agricultural Census is that the average size of operational holdings in the State. An important feature revealed by the Agricultural Census is that the average size of operational holdings in the State recorded a declining trend over the successive censuses. The average size of operational holdings, which was 1.37 hectares in 1976-77, recorded marginal decline to 1.36 hectares in 1980-81. In 1985-86, the same registered further declined to 1.31 hectares. In 1995-96 it further declined to 1.17 hectares. At all-India level too, the average size of holding was found to have gradually declined from 1.69 hectares to 1.57 hectares over the period 1985-86 to 1990-91. The Table – 4.5 shows the position of agricultural holding and operated area from 1970-71 to 1995-96.

TABLE – 4.5

NUMBER OF AGRICULTURAL HOLDING AND OPERATED AREA AS PERAGRICULTURAL CENSUS IN ASSAM

FERTILISER:

4.7.0 The distribution system of fertiliser in Assam is channalised through AAIDC, STATFED, ASAMB, GPSS, ASC and other private Agents/Dealers under the control of Department of Agriculture. These organisations play vital role in fertiliser distribution throughout the State. The distributors are to procure the fertilisers (Controlled) from the manufacturers as per allotment made by the Department and sell directly or through their respective branches located at various corners of the State.

Although an increasing trend is observed as regards consumption of fertilisers in absolute terms in Assam, its consumption in terms of NPK is far below the level achieved by other States as well as national level. The Table-4.6 gives the actual and targeted consumption of fertilisers in the State.

TABLE – 4.6

ACTUAL CONSUMPTION OF PLANT NUTRIENTS IN KHARIF & RABI SEASON
(In thousand tonnes)

AGRICULTURAL CREDIT:

4.8.0 the Agricultural credit is disbursed through a multi-agency system consisting of Commercial Banks, Regional Rural Banks and Co-operative Banks, Co-operative credit institutions are financing short, medium term and long term basis have remained as primary institutional agencies for rural credit. But due to several reasons the cooperative credit structure is facing severe problems, which have restricted its ability to function effectively. Limited ability of mobilized resources; low level of recovery of loans advanced has also affected the health of the system. The position of flow of credit through Assam Cooperative Bank Ltd., for last three years is shown in Table – 4.7

TABLE – 4.7
FLOW OF CREDIT
(Rupees in lakh)

The Kishan Credit Card (KCC) Scheme aimed at providing adequate and timely support to the farmers needs has not progressed as effectively as desired. During 2002-2003, 55,000 numbers of KCCs were issued by the Nationalised Banks against the target of one lakh KCCs. In the current year, the Department has kept a target of issuing of two lakh KCCs among the farmers.

The Assam Cooperative Apex Bank Ltd., has issued 700 KCCs against its target of 3000 fixed for the year 2002-2003 and efforts are being made to achieve the target. The Credits line of ASCARD Bank is also opened during the year after a gap of seven years, which is expected to play a significant role in long term cooperative agriculture credit operation in the State.

ASSAM RURAL INFRASTRUCTURE AND AGRICULTURAL SERVICE PROJECT:

4.9.0 The Government of Assam is implementing this Scheme from 1995-96 where the funding has been done by the World Bank from the IDA category.

Under the provision of the project, the State is implementing a project of Shallow Tube Wells (STW) to create irrigation potential for crops and installed 62,250 Nos. of STWs for creation of irrigation potential of 1.25 lakh hectares of cropped area. The basic intention of this scheme is to explore and harness the available ground water for irrigation with the help of a 5 H.P. Centrifugal Pump Set primarily moved by a diesel engine, Subsidy has been provided to the tune of one third of the total project cost. Under the provision of the said scheme the Agriculture Department is installing another 8,200 Nos. of STWs during the year 2002-2003 and 2003-2004. The infrastructure is primarily installed by the Field Management Committee (FMC)/Pathar Parichalana Samitee (PPS) which has been the lowest level farmer’s organization in the State of Assam.

Under the provision of the project, the State is also implementing a Scheme ‘Agricultural Mechanization’ which has aimed to distribute primarily the agricultural tillage machineries to the FMC/PPS owning the irrigation facilities to go for multiple cropping in the same plot of land. The machineries are proposed to be distributed at a maximum subsidy of 50% of the total cost. The basic items proposed are Tractors with implements, Power Tillers with implements and Power Threshers. During the year 2001-2002, 105 Nos. of Tractors with implements were distributed to 105 Nos. of FMCs. The State has also taken action to distribute 500 Nos. of Tractors with implements, 1500 Nos. of Power Tiller with implements and 300 Nos. of Power Threshers during the year 2002-2003 and 2002-2004. These machineries after induction in the agricultural sector would raise the level of tillage power etc. approximately by 0.02 H.P. per hectare.

CROP INSURANCE:

4.10.0 The Government of India has introduced the National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (NAIS), which is accepted by the State Government also. The scheme was implemented in Assam from Rabi Season, 1999-2000. The crops covered during Rabi season were – Summer paddy. Wheat, Rape and Mustard, Sugarcane and Potato and the crops covered under Kharif season are Autumn Paddy and Winter Paddy.

The following points are mention-worthy in respect of NAIS:

1. Proposal has been submitted for inclusion of 11 more horticultural crops in phased manner.

2. Non-loanee farmers are also covered in addition to the loanee farmers as proposed under the scheme.

3. Farmers could insure their crop beyond value of threshold yield level up to 150 per cent of average yield of notified area on payment of extra premium.

4. Government of Assam has been moved to provide fund for Corpus Fund to meet the catastrophic losses. There is provision for meeting the claims beyond 100 per cent of premium by the Government of India and Government of Assam on 50:50 basis. Thereafter all claims up to 150 per cent of premium would be met by implementing agency and beyond 150 per cent shall be paid out from Corpus Fund for a period of three years. After the period of three years, claims upto 200 per cent will be met by the implementing agency. Claims above this ceiling will be paid out of the Corpus Fund for which scheme has been submitted to the Government for providing fund as per guidelines. An amount of Rs 14.29 lakh has been sanctioned by the State Government as its share of contribution towards claims and subsidies during the current financial year 2003-2004. The settlement of pending claims under NAIS has been completed by releasing the fund.

SPECIAL PRODUCTION PROGRMAME:

4.11.0 With a view to create awareness for cultivation of certain crops for increase in production, with Department of Agriculture has been implementing various special production schemes in the State Amongst those mention may be made of:

(1) Accelerated Maize Development Programme (AMDP) a Centrally Sponsored Scheme under TMOP&M was implemented from 1998-99.

(2) Centrally sponsored National Pulse Development Programme (NPDP) being implemented in the State since 1986-87.

(3) Technology Mission on Oil-seeds and Pulses (TMOP) and centrally sponsored scheme of Oil Seed production Programme (OPP) introduced since 1986-87.

(4) State Plan scheme for Cotton Development is in operation in the hill districts.

Apart from these, some other Schemes/Programmes are also being implemented under Macro Management Mode of Agriculture since 2001-2002.

During 2003-2004, the Government of India has made an allocation of Rs 700.00 lakh and the Department has made outlay against various programmes as mentioned in Table – 4.8.

TABLE – 4.8
ALLOCATION OF FUND UNDER DIFFERENT PROGRAMME
(Rupees in lakh)

HORTICULTURE:

4.12.0 Assam has unique agro-climatic conditions, which permit growing of different varieties of horticultural crops, like fruits, vegetables, flowers, spices, medicinal and aromatic plants, nut crops, tuber crops and also plantation crops. The total area under horticultural crops in the State is estimated at 5,43,278 hectares which annually produce about 12.50 lakh tones of fruits and about 30.89 lakh tonnes of vegetables including potato, spices, flowers, nut crops etc. The homestead gardens locally known as ‘Bari’ is a unique feature of common people of the State which depict an inherent tendency to be self-sufficient with day to day family requirements of seasonal major and minor fruits, vegetables, spices, condiments and even the medicinal plants also. As the soil is largely organic in nature, these crops seldom require any chemicals, fertilizer or pesticides. Of late, bigger plantations with thrust crops on modern footing are gradually coming up and the need of commercialisation has been felt even in the backward districts of the State. However, horticulture crops in Assam is yet to be fully harnessed. The area, production and average yield of some major horticultural crops in Assam during the year 2001-2002 are shown in table 4.9.

TABLE – 4.9

AREA, PRODUCTION AND AVERAGE YIELD OF SOME MAJOR HORTICULTURAL CROPS IN
ASSAM DURING THE YEAR 2001-2002