The Agriculture Department, Assam was created in April, 1882. The Department was then engaged in conducting crop cutting experiments on winter rice, mustard and sugarcane. The crop cutting experiments were then called agricultural experiments.  The reason of conducting crop cutting experiment s was to assess productiveness of land to prepare assessment proposals during settlement. There was no agricultural experts in the Department till 1897.In 1893, an Agricultural Conference was held in Simla. In accordance with the recommendations of this conference, Government of India deputed Sir E. Buck to Assam in 1895 to discuss with Assam Government about the recommendations. Sir E. Buck advocated appointment of an Agricultural Expert to (1) ascertain “agricultural defects” and (2) introduce agricultural improvements. In the year 1897, Mr. B. C. Basu a Deputy Collector of Bengal and a graduate of an Agricultural College in England was appointed as Assistant Director. Although Assam was a separate province it was amalgamated with Eastern Bengal in 1905. In the new province of Eastern Bengal and Assam the Agriculture Department was separated in 1907 from the combined Department of Land Records and Agriculture. After the creation of a separate Department, expansion of the Department took place quickly. Assam became a separate province again in 1912 when the Agriculture Department was again combined with that of Land Records and continued up to 1922. In 1923 three allied Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Industries were combined. In a Memorandum prepared by RaiBahadur, K.L. Barua, B.L., the then Director of Agriculture, Assam in 1927 for submission to Royal Commission on Agriculture, a vivid picture of growth of Agriculture Department is found. The Department saw considerable expansion in its first half century’s existence although it was combined either with Land Records or with Industries and Cooperation Departments except for the period from 1906 – 07 to 1911 – 12 when Assam was amalgamated with Eastern Bengal. In 1930, Industries and Cooperation Department were separated and Agriculture became an independent Department in November 1930. Mr. A.G. Birt joined as the first technically qualified Director of Agriculture, Assam on 01.04.1931. However, his predecessors being generalists were none the worse in their understanding of agricultural situation of the state as may be seen from increase in strength of officers and staff and establishment of research stations on major crops during the first 50 years.

Now, The Agriculture Department in the state mainly consists of two executive wings namely, Directorate of Agriculture and Directorate of Horticulture & Food Processing. The Directorate is known as “Directorate of Horticulture & Food Processing. Assam” and is located at Agriculture Campus, Khanapara, Guwahati-22. It operates from Guwahati for the entire state of Assam with its officials under the Directorate of Agriculture at village, subdivision and District levels. However, the Directorate is under the process of a full fledged Department.