The state government has taken up several initiatives to utilize the rice fallow areas in the state, which are left unutilized by farmers after harvesting Kharif and Sali rice. It is estimated that the state has around 10 lakh hectares of rice fallow area. Out of this area of 10 lakh hectares (ha), an area of around 6 lakh ha has either irrigation availability or residual moisture availability.
In order to utilize this fallow area, the government has taken up several initiatives, which include expansion of the mustard area under cultivation, pulses cultivation area expansion, maize area expansion, and potato area expansion, an official of the Agriculture Department said.
Currently, the area under mustard cultivation is only 2.87 lakh ha, and the production of mustard oil from this area is around 1.85 lakh metric tonnes (MT). This is able to meet only 20% of the state’s edible oil requirement. The government, therefore, plans to bring another 4 lakh ha of area under cultivation with high-yielding varieties, scientific practices, and the technical support of ICAR-DRMR in the next four years. With this expansion, the state will be able to produce an additional 6 lakh MT, which is expected to meet the remaining 80% gap in demand.
Assam government aims to utilize fallow land in state
