4.27 lakh hectares. That is the farmland in Jammu and Kashmir with no recorded irrigation, about 57.9% of a net sown area of roughly 7.38 lakh hectares, according to figures from the J&K Digest of Statistics reported on October 26.
The headline numbers
- Net irrigated area: 3.106 lakh hectares, about 42.1% of net sown area.
- Canals, known locally as kuls, supply about 84% of reported irrigated area.
- Gross irrigated area was 4.74 lakh hectares in 2024-25, roughly 1,000 hectares above the previous year; it peaked at 4.83 lakh hectares in 2021-22.
Jammu-division districts, net irrigated area 2024-25
- Jammu: 57,842 ha
- Kathua: 21,407 ha
- Samba: 10,130 ha
- Udhampur: 4,951 ha
- Doda: 1,989 ha
- Reasi: 1,486 ha
- Ramban: 1,408 ha
The source does not give each district's net sown area, so these figures cannot rank districts by the share of farmland that is irrigated.
What the 58% does and does not mean
It measures recorded irrigation coverage, not water volume or scarcity. Gross and net figures differ: gross counts land once for each crop season it is irrigated, so a rising gross figure does not mean more land was newly irrigated. The report presents climate change as a regional risk, citing the IPCC's Sixth Assessment Report on shifting river-flow timing in the Hindu Kush Himalaya, not as the cause of the gap.
What the report suggests
Options it lists include modernising canal networks (desilting, reducing losses), local storage, protecting springs and catchments, efficient irrigation methods and better stream-flow monitoring. For young residents considering agri-enterprise, the district figures show where recorded irrigation is concentrated.
Source: Greater Kashmir, October 26, 2026, citing the J&K Digest of Statistics and Regional Digest of Statistics 2024-25. Hero image is a file photo of a hill village near Patnitop.
