Operational land holding.

The total operational land holdings in the district are 83011 numbers, out of which 28.78% are landless farmers who are possessing 7.64% cultivable area of the district. 39.53% are marginal farmers those are occupying 32.18% cultivable area, 26.62% are small farmers & are holding 42.15% cultivable area, 3.26% are medium farmers and are occupying 9.60% area. 1.39% is large farmers who are holding 6.01% area and 0.42% are very large farmers and are occupying 2.41% area. Resource rich farmers purely on the basis of size of holding viz. very large, large and medium farmers are 5.07% and are possessing 18.03% cultivable area of the district. Resource poor farmers i.e. marginal/small and landless farmers are 94.93% and are holding 81.97% area.

This data reveals that low cost technology has better adoption probability in comparison to high cost technology. Secondly, farmers are needed financial assistant from the financial institutions constantly to raise their income through the production of their farming systems.

Agricultural Institutional arrangement:

1. Total Nos of Agril. Sub-Division            :       1 No.
2. Total Nos of Development Block           :      5 Nos.
3. Total nos of A.D.O. Circle                     :      7 Nos.
4. Total Nos of AEA Eleka                         :    60 Nos
5. Total Nos of Gaon Panchayat               :    62 Nos.
6. No. of cooperative societies                 :    16 Nos.
7. Total Nos of Revenue Village                : 334 Nos
8. No. of seed farm                                   :     1 No.
9. Nos. of Tea Gardens                            :    17 Nos.
10. Nos. of KVK (ICAR)                              :      1 No.
11. Nos. of Regulated market                    :      1 No.

Agro Climatic conditions

Hailakandi district with geographical area of 132700 hectare occupies 19.26% area of the Barak Valley Agro Climatic zone of Assam.

Rainfall

The average annual rainfall of the district is 2502.46 mm with 114 average rainy days on the basis of record of last 10 years. During this period, the rainfall varied from 942.20 mm to 5052.85 mm annually. High rainfall generally concentrated during the months of May to August. The rainfall is quite erratic and uneven throughout the district. The pre monsoon rain ( February-April ) helps for growing  Autumn Paddy and Kharif vegetable, normal monsoon ( May – September) helps  for growing winter paddy and in case of excess rainfall it causes damage to crops and livestock. The post monsoon (October – November) shower helps in panicle initiation stage of paddy crop. If sufficient shower is not received then it causes little dry spell condition in October on the other hand excess shower sometimes delays the cultivation of Rabi crops. Winter months (December – January) remains generally dry with scanty rainfall.

Irrigation

The cultivation of the district is mainly depended on the mercy of rain fall as only 4.09% cultivated area is irrigated. Eighteen electrical lift irrigation schemes and 19 deep tube wells have been constructed / installed by the department of Irrigation, but most of them are lying defunct or unutilized. The flow irrigation schemes are being implemented by the department is creating some potential areas for assured irrigation.The main source of irrigation in the district is low lift pumps, which are installed by the farmers themselves with or without government’s assistance. The available irrigation facility is mainly confined to summer paddy and Rabi Vegetable crops in selected pockets. The area under irrigation is given at Table 3.

Block and source wise area under irrigation

The department of Agriculture distributes power pumps, electric motors etc to create irrigation potential under RKVY, BGERI, HMNEH(MIDH), STATE PLAN etc.

Classification of soils & Fertiliser consumption

The soils of Barak valley zone owe their origin to Shillong plateau and other surrounding hills to a large extent .The main river Barak of the valley has also a minor contribution to it.The soils are formed from the sedimentary rocks like sandstone, shale and sandy shale depending upon situations. The soil varies from sandy to clay texture with pH from 4.5 t0 5.9. The major classes of soil prevalent in the district are old riverine alluvial, Old Mountain alluvial, non-laterite red and peat soils. Old riverine alluvial soil of the district mainly confined to the banks of the river Barak, Katakhal, Dhaleswari.

The soils of the district are classified in to 5 (Five ) categories / type viz. Tilla land/ red soil, alluvial soil, sandy soil, sandy loam, clay and clay loam soils. 37.52% cultivable area of the district is occupied by Sandy loam soil, 31.76% by alluvial soil,  17.51% by clay loam soil, 9.90% by sandy soil and 3.30% by Tilla land/ red soils. Tilla land red soil existed only in 3 blocks viz. Lala, Katlicherra and South-Hailakandi whereas all other soils are existed in all the blocks of the district. From the point of the soils almost all tropical and semi tropical crops can be grown successfully with the some corrective measures.

Block wise classification of soils

The soil of the district is highly acidic in nature. Texture of Soil is clay to clay loam in nature except reverine tracts and hilly tracts; it is clay to sandy loam and laterite. In regards to fertility status, Nitrogen is high to medium, Phosphate is medium to low and Potash content is low.

Land use pattern

The geographical area of the district is 132700 hectares, out of which 42.22% cultivable area, 3.59% is Cultivable Waste, 2.29% is Current fallow, 42.59% is Forest area, 0.70% is Pasture, 6.17% is land in Non Agricultural use, 1.32% is Miscellaneous Plantation and 1.12% is Barren (Waste land). Currently, out of total cultivable area, only 82.49% is under cultivation. Low coverage of cultivable area is due to inadequate irrigation facility. Block wise land pattern of the district is given in Table No 7.

 Land use pattern in different blocks in hectares

Cropped area:   

1. Gross cropped area                                 :   67736 Ha.
2. Net cropped area                                     :   45157 Ha.
3. Area under Mono crop                             :   25182 Ha.
4. Area under Double crop                          :   18052 Ha.
5. Triple cropped area                                  :    2150 Ha.
6. Cropping  Intensity                                   :      150 %   

Existing cropping  pattern of the district

The agricultural circle wise topographical situation and different cropping pattern adopted and practiced by the farmers are presented in the following table.

Existing land use pattern

  Address/Contact details

KRISHI BHAWAN Block Road, Ward No.14, Lakshmi Shahar P.O : Lakshi Shahar Town & Dist : Hailakandi PIN:788152:Phone.03844-225350. E-Mail:daohailakandi@Yahoo.Com