April, 1912.] 



321 



Edible Products. 



are preferable to nitrates in paddy 

 cultivation. For the investigator, the 

 suggestion arises regarding lines of re- 

 search for the purpose of enquiring 

 further into the forms in which nitrogen 

 is assimilated directly by plants. 



SUGAR-CANeTn INDIA. 



By J. Walter Leather, ph.d., p. i.e., 

 Imperial Agricultural Chemist. 



(From the Agricultural Journal of India, 

 Vol. VI., Part III., July, 1911.) 



India is Importing more than Half- 

 a-million Tons op Sugar Annually. 



This statement will sufficiently indi- 

 cate the object of the present article. 

 It is not merely that the above indic- 

 ated quantity is large, but it is also one 

 that is constantly increasing. Twenty 

 years ago India purchased 100,000 tons 

 of sugar; ten years ago the import had 

 risen to 300,000 tons ; now it is in excess 

 of 600.0C0 tons. The fact is all the more 

 striking when it is recollected that India 

 produces more sugar than any other 

 country, the estimated production being 

 about three million tons. Two questions 

 at once occur to the mind, which are :— 



(i) Is the transaction a sound one? and 



(ii) Can it be avoided ? 



The reply to the first of these is, I 

 think, both simple and definite. During 

 the last twenty years the cultivated 

 area has increased by about 21 million 

 acres, which area has been utilised for 

 the expansion of the wheat, cotton, oil 

 seeds and food-grain crops ; at the same 

 time there has been no corresponding 

 increase in the sugar-cane area, which 

 has in fact suffered some slight decline. 

 These facts are demonstrated by the 

 following statement * ;— 

 Statement op Areas in British India. 

 (Millions of Acres.) 



'3 5 

 zz ^ 











a 



o 





is 





o ^ 

 H > 



Wh 



Cot 



Average of 5 years 



1894-95 to 1898-99. ... 191 19"6 9"4 12 6 2'8 

 Average of 5 years 



1899-1900 to 1903-04.. 198 19'8 10-2 12 6 2-5 

 Average of 5 years 



1904-05 to 1908-09. ... 212 22 13'4 13'4 2'4 



* Agricultural Statistics of British India. 

 41 



As a business transaction the posi- 

 tion is perfectly sound ; for it is clear 

 that under present conditions it pays 

 the Indian cultivator better to grow 

 other things than sugar and to purchase 

 the latter. It is an example on a very 

 large scale of what happens in the case 

 of many districts on a much smaller one, 

 some of which never grow any sugar 

 at all, but always purchase what they 

 require. 



But when we turn to the second ques- 

 tion and consider whether India can 

 avoid purchasing these large quantities 

 of sugar, the answer is by no means 

 simple. In one sense the position can 

 be defined, for it is evident that it will 

 only pay the cultivator to grow more 

 sugar if (i) its price rises, or (ii) the 

 crop can be raised more cheaply, or 

 (iii) more sugar can be produced per 

 acre, or naturally if a combination of 

 these conditions can be realised. Re- 

 garding (i) it is highly improbable 

 that any rise in price will occur. It is 

 true that the world's demand for sugar 

 constantly increases, but the future 

 of sugar may be expected to be similar 

 to its past, and it will be produced 

 more and more cheaply. There is, how- 

 ever, one important point which deserves 

 mention here. Whilst it may be ex- 

 pected that sugar will become cheaper, 

 there will be a limit to such fall in 

 price, because there is no probability 

 that all the other sugar-producing 

 countries could together supply India's 

 whole demand. The latter is about 3*5 

 million tons. At the same time, even 

 supposing one million tons were im- 

 ported, this would be no reason for 

 assuming a rise in the price. Also in 

 respect of condition (ii) which implies 

 cheaper labour, there is no probability 

 of this being realised ; wages will rise 

 and agricultural machinery has not so 

 far helped to decrease the labour bill 

 for cultivating or harvesting the sugar- 

 cane crop. At the same time there is 

 some evidence that the cost of cultivat- 

 ing an acre of cane in India is high. 

 Hadi estimates this at about Rs. 05-80 

 per acre. It is not easy to compare 

 accurately the cost of cultivation in 



