Assam

Agriculture

Accounts for more than a third of Assam’s income and employs 69% of workforce.^[57]Assam's biggest contribution to the world is tea. It produces some of the finest and expensive teas and has its own variety Camellia assamica. Assam also accounts for fair share of India’s production of rice, rapeseed, mustard seed, jute, potato, sweet potato, banana, papaya,areca nut and turmeric. It is also a home of large varieties of citrus fruits, leaf vegetables, vegetables, useful grasses, herbs, spices, etc.

Assam’s agriculture is yet to experience modernisation in real sense. With implications to food security, per capita food grain production has declined in past five decades.^[58]Productivity has increased marginally; but still lower comparing to highly productive regions. For instance, yield of rice (staple food of Assam) was just 1531 kg per hectare against India’s 1927 kg per hectare in 2000–01^[58] (which itself is much lower than Egypt’s 9283, US’s 7279, South Korea’s 6838, Japan’s 6635 and China’s 6131 kg per hectare in 2001^[59]). On the other hand, after having strong domestic demand, 1.5 million hectares of inland water bodies, numerous rivers and 165 varieties of fishes,^[60] fishing is still in its traditional form and production is not self-sufficient.^[61]

The Assam Agriculture University is located at Jorhat, Assam. It is the only agricultural university for the Seven Sisters.

[edit]Industry

Apart from tea and petroleum refineries, Assam has few industries of significance. Industrial development is inhibited by its physical and political isolation from neighbouring countries such as Myanmar, China and Bangladesh and from other growing Southeast Asian economies; ultimately leading to neglect by the federal government in regards to development – a key motivation for separatist groups.^[62] The region is landlocked, situated in the eastern periphery of India and is linked to the mainland by a flood and cyclone prone narrow corridor, known as the Siliguri Corridor or Chicken's Neck, with weak transport infrastructure that have remained undeveloped since independence. The international airport in Guwahati is yet to find airlines providing direct international flights. The Brahmaputra suitable for navigation does not possess sufficient infrastructure for international trade and success of such a navigable trade route will be dependent on proper channel maintenance and diplomatic and trade relationships with Bangladesh.

Processed Assam tea

Assam is a major producer of crude oil and it accounts for about 15% of India's crude output,^[63] exploited by the Assam Oil Company Ltd., and natural gas in India and is the second place in the world (afterTitusville in the United States) where petroleum was discovered. Asia’s first successful mechanically drilled oil well was drilled in Makum (Assam) way back in 1867. Most of the oilfields are located in the Upper Assam region. Assam has four oil refineries located in Guwahati, Digboi, Golaghat (Numaligarh) and Bongaigaon with a total capacity of 7 Million metric tonnes (7.7 million short tons) per annum. It is worth mentioning here that Asia's first refinery was setup at Digboi and discoverer of Digboi oilfield was the Assam Railways & Trading Company Limited (AR&T Co. Ltd.), a registered company of London in 1881.^[64] Despite its richness in natural resources, the benefits have yet to improve the lives of the people of Assam.

Although having a poor overall industrial performance, several other industries have nevertheless been started, including a chemical fertiliser plan at Namrup, petrochemical industries at Namrup and Bongaigaon, paper mills at Jagiroad, Panchgram and Jogighopa, sugar mills at Barua Bamun Gaon, Chargola, Kampur, cement plant at Bokajan & Badarpur, cosmetics plant (HLL) at Doom Dooma, etc. Moreover, there are other industries such as jute mill, textile and yarn mills, silk mill, etc. Unfortunately many of these industries are facing loss and closure due to lack of infrastructure and improper management practices.^[65]

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