Miscellaneous. 



158 



fArGTTRT. 1908. 



nient of useful functions will take place, 

 In this connection, as a result of a con- 

 versation I had with the representatives 

 of existing associations, I would be in- 

 clined to doubt whether the regular 

 appointment of a Government officer, 

 especially a revenue officer, as chairman, 

 is wise if the organisation is to succeed. 

 It is all a question of personality. In 

 some cases, the Mamlatdar in the case of 

 the smaller bodies, or the collector in the 

 case of the larger, will be naturally the 

 leader ; in others, he will always be sus- 

 pected, and the association will be 

 still-born. I am aware that the appoint- 

 ment of these men as officers to corres- 

 pond with the Department of Agricul- 

 ture is usually very advantageous. 

 They are accustomed to such corres- 

 pondence, and their representations are 

 more easily understood and perhaps carry 

 more weight. But if we really mean the 

 local associations to fulfil their primary 

 purpose in improving the agriculture of 

 the villages, this advantage must, where 

 necessary, be at least partly sacrificed. 



A suggestion was made at the Con- 

 ference that, where such still existed, 

 the village organisation should itself 

 become the agricultural association. 

 No new name would be imposed, no 

 sense of strangeness would be felt, only 

 that this organisation would be asked 

 to fulfil some extra purposes. " That 

 would be a more natural procedure to 

 adopt," said Mr. Wood, " than to create 

 some new bodies, impose upon them 

 occidental names, and put before them 

 long sheets of printed bye-laws." The 

 idea seems an admirable one, but in any 

 case, as is at once obvious, "the long 

 sheet of printed bye-laws" would be 

 fatal to an agricultural association or 

 to anything else in Indian village life. 

 There seems a good deal to be said for 

 the suggestion, also made at the Con- 

 ference, to let the formation of agri- 

 cultural associations follow the intro- 

 duction of co-operative credit societies. 

 The latter introduce the idea of co-oper- 

 ation under a regular inspection, and once 

 such a society is successful in a place, 

 the people will be ready for a further 

 development of the idea. This has been 

 even more recently emphasised by Mr. 

 Stanley Reed of Bombay in a paper read 

 at the Indian Industrial Conference at 

 Surat. He said :— " At a recent Con- 

 ference at Ahmedabad a decided pre- 

 ference was expressed for village, or 

 at most taluka, associations. I would 

 only say that this is one of those ques- 

 tions in which it is desirable to hasten 

 slowly, and if it be agreed that a start 

 should be made with village societies, 

 those villages should be selected where 

 the co-operative credit movement has 

 taken the firmest root." 



Regarding the organisation of agri- 

 cultural associations, we have, then, in 

 summary the following points :— 



(1) The unit of organisation should 

 be as small as possible, a village by pre- 

 ference, but where this is impossible, a 

 taluka. 



(2) The organisation should not be 

 forced, and should have as little as pos- 

 sible of the Government order about it. 



(3) While officially patronised, its 

 organisation should be essentially popu- 

 lar and co-operative. 



(4) Existing village organisation should 

 be used, wherever possible, rather than 

 have the introduction of a new body 

 with a new name. 



(5) Co-operative credit societies, firmly 

 rooted, are the best introduction to an 

 agricultural association. 



Turning now from the organisation to 

 the functions of an agricultural asso- 

 ciation, it was universally recognised at 

 Ahmedabad that they must be solely 

 agricultural if they are to do their best 

 work. The improvement of agricultural 

 methods was seen to be as much as an 

 association was capable of dealing with. 

 And if this be the case, perhaps the most 

 important function of the local organisa- 

 tion is to keep the central body, which 

 stands for the improvement of agricul- 

 ture in the whole province, i.e., the 

 Department of Agriculture, in touch 

 with the actual cultivators in the field. 

 Here has been the weak point hitherto 

 in the agricultural organisation of many 

 Indian provinces, if not in most. One of 

 the speakers particularly emphasised the 

 present lack of touch, in Gujerat at any 

 rate, between the Agricultural Depart- 

 ment and the agriculturists. And the 

 local agricultural association must be 

 the link, if any is to exist- 

 But here a difficulty arises. If the 

 local organisations are to be small, as 

 already recommended, the touch cannot 

 be maintained by correspondence : it must 

 be by the personal and frequent presence 

 of thoroughly sympathetic officers of 

 the Department, who are themselves 

 practical agriculturists. If correspon- 

 dence can be fully replaced by personal 

 presence, then I shall have better con- 

 fidence in the success of agricultural 

 associations as a means of agricultural 

 development. The men who can do it 

 must be sons of the soil, be well educated 

 in the science and practice of agriculture 

 and be otherwise well chosen ; the areas 

 they have to cover must be compara- 

 tively small ; they must be very keen on 

 their work. Such men already exist in 

 Bombay, and more will be produced 



