On July 17, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma presided over a meeting at Lok Sewa Bhawan with senior Agriculture Department officials and experts from the Regional Meteorological Centre to evaluate the effects of insufficient rainfall on Assam’s agriculture. After reviewing data from the impacted districts, CM Sarma gave the Assam Chief Secretary instructions to increase departmental action and irrigation measures in order to assist farmers. However, the state’s farmers are left in a precarious position as they are unable to plant paddy seedlings in their fields due to insufficient rainfall and inadequate irrigation facilities. Some farmers are using folklore to irrigate their fields, such as arranging frog marriages to please the Rain God, while others are paying for it themselves.
The agriculture and irrigation departments in the rural state of Assam have completely fallen short of expectations. The state has 52.75 lakh hectares of gross crop land and 27.56 lakh hectares of sown land. These areas need to be irrigated, yet the department completely failed to do so.Ten lakh hectares of land would be irrigated by major and medium irrigation schemes, while 17 lakh hectares will be irrigated by minor irrigation schemes. In addition to this, shallow tube wells are installed for irrigation by the Agriculture Department. During this dry spell, places like Nalbari, Tihu, Kamalpur, Dhing, and Barpeta are impacted.