Govt creates 5-Year irrigation master plan, 3,900 schemes ongoing: Minister

Guwahati, March 7: A five-year irrigation plan for the state is developed, Irrigation Minister Ashok Singhal informed the Assam Legislative Assembly on Friday.

Singhal was addressing a question raised on irrigation by Sivasagar MLA Akhil Gogoi during the ninth day of the Budget session of the Assam Legislative Assembly on Friday.

“An irrigation master plan for all districts of Assam for 5 years has been created and completed. The inputs of the legislators have also been taken into account,” Singhal informed the House on Friday.

He further added that nine Surface Minor Irrigation (SMI) schemes are currently ongoing, along with other schemes under the State Disaster Mitigation Fund (SDMF).

“Apart from these, as of today, approximately 3,900 irrigation schemes and medium-measure schemes are ongoing in Assam,” Singhal said.

He informed the House that irrigation potential has been created in about 36 thousand hectares of land through the installation of 10,000 tube wells.

Acknowledging that several irrigation schemes have been closed, Singhal assured the House that efforts are underway to revive them.

“In 10,000 hectares of land that has not seen irrigation due to factors like flood damage or river changing course, schemes have now been revived on those lands, ensuring irrigation has been facilitated again.”

Singhal added that the Chief Minister in July 2024 also directed that from 2026 onwards, the government will place increased focus on ensuring irrigation coverage to all farmlands in Assam.

The Irrigation Minister also addressed the issue of round-the-year cropping raised by the Sivasagar MLA.

Singhal said that the farmers rarely received the Minimum Support Prices (MSP) earlier that prevented the round-the-year cropping.

“This government has implemented the MSP scheme. Today, farmers are cultivating crops and getting right prices for it. This has also acted as an incentive for farmers to continue farming,” Singhal said.

Singhal added that the Irrigation Department is also committed to find innovative solutions to irrigation through various schemes, seminars, and discussions.

Speaking about a technological development related to irrigation, Singhal said, “We have developed an irrigation system at a cost of Rs 9 lakh, in collaboration with a local engineer. The system will draw water from various water bodies, can be dismantled and transported to different locations.”

Informing the House that it started as a pilot project in Boko, Singhal said, “This is a successful model for farmers with small landholdings. Plans are now on to expand the scheme to other districts as well.”

Singhal also spoke about the Irrigation Khetiyak Bondhu app that will provide information on various irrigation schemes ongoing or closed in the constituencies.

Sivasagar MLA Akhil Gogoi said that Assam ranks 22nd in the country in regard to irrigation, and is still dependent on rainwater irrigation.

He added that there are 28 per cent landless farmers in Assam, and 32 per cent marginalized farmers; indicating that 60 per cent of the people in the state have very less amount of land.

“Due to paucity of land, tube wells cannot be established in the state. The Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) has shown that in every 1 hectare of land in Assam, crops produced is 2,413 kg; as against 4,516 kg in Punjab’s 1 hectare,” Gogoi informed the House while seeking a response from Singhal.

Citing data from the Economic Survey of 2023-24, Sarbhog MLA Manoranjan Talukdar said there is an inadequate amount of net cropped area covered by irrigation potential in the state.

Leader of Opposition (LoP) Debabrata Saikia said that the Opposition seeks proper data on the matter of irrigation.