Less than 10 per cent of Assam’s total cropped area is currently under irrigation, even as the State has set an irrigation potential target of 12.6 lakh hectares, according to the State Economic Survey 2025–26.
The survey noted that the Irrigation Department has created irrigation potential for about 8.84 lakh hectares up to March last year. However, actual utilisation during 2024–25 stood at only around 2.5 lakh hectares, down from approximately 2.98 lakh hectares in the previous year.
With Assam’s gross cropped area estimated at about 40.88 lakh hectares, the data indicates that fewer than one in ten hectares of farmland is benefiting from government irrigation facilities.
Officials attributed the wide gap between potential created and actual utilisation to several persistent challenges. These include ageing irrigation infrastructure, inadequate funds for operation and maintenance, erratic power supply, damage to transmission lines and transformers, shifting river courses affecting lift irrigation schemes, and theft of motors and pumps.
The report flagged the slow pace of irrigation expansion as a concern at a time when Assam’s agriculture sector is becoming increasingly vulnerable to climate variability. The State has recorded significant rainfall deficits in several recent Rabi seasons, with deviations reaching as high as minus 67.6 per cent in 2019 and over minus 40 per cent in multiple years.
Experts cited in the survey emphasised that despite Assam’s strong natural agricultural potential, heavy dependence on monsoon rainfall continues to expose farmers to drought risks and weather shocks. Expanding effective irrigation coverage has been identified as critical for improving cropping intensity, stabilising farm output and enhancing overall agricultural productivity in the State.
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