Watering down the drought effect

For farmers in Assam, spoilt by the indulgence of the rain gods, 2006 was nothing short of a shock. The unprecedented drought-like situation that caught the state government unawares resulted in a Rs 400 crore loss and a 15 per cent fall in rice production, the mainstay of the rural economy.

For farmers in Assam, spoilt by the indulgence of the rain gods, 2006 was nothing short of a shock. The unprecedented drought-like situation that caught the state government unawares resulted in a Rs 400 crore loss and a 15 per cent fall in rice production, the mainstay of the rural economy.

This year, determined not to be caught on the wrong foot, Assam has taken several preventive measures. While the budgetary allocation for agriculture has been raised from Rs 327.52 crore last year to Rs 365.5 crore, the focus will also be on creating better irrigation facilities. 8220;The government has earmarked Rs 78 crore for creation of additional irrigation facilities covering about 14,300 hectares of agricultural land,8221; says Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, who also holds the finance portfolio. Of this, Rs 30 crore will come from the Additional Central Assistance.

8220;This year we expect better rains. There might even be floods, which help in the long run,8221; says state Agriculture Minister Pramila Rani Brahma. 8220;After last year8217;s experience, we have sounded a general alert for both floods and drought,8221; she adds.

8220;The drought was a completely new experience. Luckily we managed to tackle it and compensated the farmers partially,8221; says Bhaskar Mushahary, the state agriculture production commissioner. The three-pronged strategy adopted by the state to grapple with the drought included providing free diesel and tilling, alternative employment under food-for-work scheme, and long-term measures like better irrigation facilities and support for rabi crops.

Never having faced a drought, Assam hadn8217;t thought of irrigation as a standby means of support or of increasing the state8217;s agricultural output through irrigation. So the centrally-assisted schemes were implemented largely on paper as were the state government8217;s schemes to bring at least 25 per cent of cultivable land under irrigation. In reality, hardly eight per cent of Assam8217;s cultivable land is under irrigation. When state Water Resources Minister Nurjamal Sarkar revealed this recently in the state assembly, he also admitted that 25 per cent of the state8217;s cultivable land had actually been under irrigation at one point of time.

In terms of statistics, the state has a net cropped area of about 24.9 lakh hectares 31.74 per cent of the state8217;s geographical area, of which about 0.94 lakh hectares8212;roughly 3.78 per cent8212;is identified as chronically drought-prone. About 4.75 lakh hectares of Assam8217;s net cropped area 19.08 per cent is also prone to floods.

8220;While we managed to tackle the situation last year by releasing Rs 35 crore to supply diesel, free tractors and free seeds and fertiliser, this year, the government is installing more shallow tubewells besides strengthening the existing irrigation facilities,8221; says Brahma. So a large number of farmers will be covered under schemes for supply of power tillers, low-lift pumps, power thrashers, hand compression sprayers, soil testing kits, bio-fertilisers and bio-pesticides.

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8220;Since 2005, we also have the World Bank-aided Assam Agriculture Competitiveness Project, under which we had targeted supplying 500 tractors, 1,000 power tillers, 20,000 shallow tubewells and 8,000 low-lift pumps during 2006-7,8221; says Brahma. Half of this equipment has already reached the farmers. The cumulative effect of all such measures should help Assam spurn any nasty surprises in future.