Sustainable Agriculture Practices in Rural Areas (Char Area) of Assam
Author : Dr. Mukul Chandra Kalita
Abstract :
Sustainable agriculture maintains the soil fertility and water availability judiciously; minimizing air, water and climate pollution and promote Bio-diversity. About 80% holdings in char area are within small and marginal types; working in rainfed farming with traditional knowledge and available human resources to take the activities. Total area of charland/char chapori is about 3, 608Km2. Out of which, only 340Km2 are cultivable land. Literacy % is very poor. This is almost 19.31% and 67% people falls under the category of below poverty line. Char area Development, Assam needs to implement certain schemes in order to upgrade the economy of rural people of this area. The problems in the char area are unique in nature due to constant threat from flood and erosion during rainy season. The land mass is segregated year after year and cut off from each other, making it very difficult for running any major scheme for road communication, irrigations, power supply etc. In Char land area, Winter rice, Summer rice, Maize, Jute, Rice, Toria, Nizer, Rabi vegetables, Summer vegetables are cultivating and Fishery and Livestock components are also reared by char land farmers with little scientific knowledge of adoptions Most of the farmers are within marginal and small type. Allocation of area to each farmer is very very less. (<1.0 hectares). So, in this limited areas, all Char-land farmers’ needs to full-fill their dreams as well as demand. Char-land area is mostly affected by recurrent flood water. So, farmers of this area use to grow Boro rice (Summer rice) and Early short duration Transplanted ahu rice in flood free period by utilizing available irrigations water (STW).
Keywords :
Charland, sustainable agriculture, education, irrigations, power supply, crops, livestocks, fish farming, road communication
