Irrigation Potential in Agriculture of Assam First Edition  (English, Hardcover, Dutta M)

Irrigation in high rainfall areas has a two-fold role of promoting growth in agricultural productivity in one hand and stabilizing agricultural production on the other. Assam, in the north eastern region of India, has tremendous scope of agricultural development due to its richness in surface and ground water. However, irrigation infrastructure in the state has remained relatively weak, which has been identified by researchers as one of the main factors restricting farmers from fuller utilization of the potentials of the new agricultural technology. While most of the irrigation projects in the state are developed with government investment and are managed by government agencies, installation of privately owned ground water based small scale shallow tube well schemes started in the later part of 1990's with subsidized finance from agencies like the World Bank and National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development. For enhancing agricultural production and productivity, there is a need to strengthen irrigation infrastructure in the state. Ironically, even the existing low irrigation capacity has remained underutilized for years together. This book investigates the question whether demand for irrigation is indeed low among farmers in Assam or shortcomings in the delivery from government owned irrigation facilities account for such poor utilization of existing irrigation capacity. The effectiveness of different categories of irrigation schemes in inducing farmers to adopt modern inputs such as fertilizer, HYV, etc. has also been examined using inputs from field study. The book should be of interest to agricultural policy planners, students of agricultural economics and those interested in agricultural economy of the state in general.