68 CEREALS 



exports about one-tenth of her agricultural produce, I 

 really mean that she exports the produce of one-tenth 

 of her cultivated acreage. 



It is, of course, desirable to form some idea of the 

 total value of India's produce; and, having regard to 

 those considerations about price records which I have 

 already stated, we see that it is only by employing the 

 common term of acreage as an intermediate step that 

 we can arrive at a computation of the value. As regards 

 those crops in respect of which we have reliable data 

 about areas, about yield per acre, and about price per 

 measure, the matter is simple. As regards those crops 

 or tracts in respect of which our out-turn figures are 

 imperfect, we are sometimes able to base a fair estimate 

 on crop-cutting experiments or on ascertained out-turns 

 in adjoining and similar tracts. Analogous methods are 

 followed in respect of prices or values; and to those un- 

 important areas that bear minor food-grains unspecified 

 we apply, faute de mieux, the average produce value per 

 acre deduced from the other food-grains. This average 

 produce value per acre is arrived at by dividing the sum 

 of the values of those several products in respect of which 

 we have data by the sum of the acreages under the same 

 products. It seems to be about Rs. 36 8a., or, say, 

 483. 6d. 



Before stating some of the figures that issue from the 

 calculation here outlined, it is well to say that, while 

 they must be accepted with reserve, there is no reason 

 to suppose that they are much more inaccurate than the 

 similar calculations made in other countries. 



It appears, then, that India's agricultural produce has 

 an aggregate value of some 787,500,000, while her 

 food-grains alone are worth about 495,000,000. Now 

 the total revenue of the United Kingdom is, I under- 

 stand, about 186,000,000, so India's food-grains alone 

 are worth some two and two-thirds times the revenue of 

 the United Kingdom. 



Years ago I published a paper in which I examined 

 the proposition, sometimes advanced, that it should be 

 possible to deduce from food-crop estimates some con- 

 clusion as to the quantities that would be in a sense 



