174 



PRODUCTION OF FOOD OltAINB J ?f INDIA. [Dec. 1894. 



however, does not at present seem to be probable, — we shall 

 certainly find the area of cultivation to extend in direct ratio 

 with the combined home and foreign demand." 



As regards the extent of possible increased production of food 

 grains, it is observed that of the net surveyed area of British 

 India (viz., 526,200,000 acres), the crops of" the year 1891-92 

 were obtained from 187,800,000 acres, with 31,200,( 00 acres in 

 current fallows, but two of the most important features of 

 possible future de%'elopinent are : — (a) the fact (practically 

 unknown to European agriculture) tliat India can and does 

 obtain two or more crops a year from a large portion of her culti- 

 vated area ; and (b) that there exists in British India a culturable 

 waste area of, roughly, 99,000,000 acres. 



The total irrigated area of India, may be accepted as 27,600,000 

 acres. The exten'^ion of double cropping depends mainly upon 

 the expansion of the region of artificial irrigation. This subject 

 . has recently been dealt with by Sir Edward Buck in a Resolution 

 of the Government of India, Bevenue and Agricultural Depart- 

 ment, dated 27th November 1893. This Resolution whicli deals 

 with only a portion of India, viz., 433 milHon acres (Bengal was 

 not included), shows that, excluding the imculturable and forest 

 lands, there are 270 million acres either cultivated or cultur- 

 able ; that, of this area, only 28 million acres are irrigated, while 

 76 million acres are capable of being irrigated and with advantage. 

 Of the 76 million acres of irrigable land, 43 millions are 

 actually cultivated. Assuming that one third of the 43 million 

 acres is irrigable from wells, which is somewhere near the 

 truth, there are nearly 15 millions of cultivated acres in 

 which wells ought to be constructed. In 1890-91, the Govern- 

 ment advanced R. 854,900 to the cultivators to enable them to 

 construct wells, and the result has been a net interest of 6 per 

 cent, on the capital thus invested. The construction of canals is 

 a work, that must ordinarily be undertaken by the State, and 

 the past decade has shown an increase of the canal irrigated 

 area from 6,800,000 acres in 1881-82, to 9,664,000 in 1891-92. 

 Without, therefore, taking into account the gradual improvement 

 of agricultural methods at present taking place, and which may 

 be expected from year to year to ultimately greatly increase the 

 productiveness of India, the expansion of the area of irrigation 

 cannot fail to enhance the yield of lands already cultivated and 

 extend the area of actual cultivation. 



According to the Resolution, good cultivation, with irrigation 

 and manure, may in India, even on land originally poor, secure 

 an outturn of 30 bushels of food crops to the acre, which is very 

 much what the English acre produces of wheat under favourable 

 circumstances. But the average outturn in India was estimated 

 by the Famine Commissioners to be approximately not more 

 than 12 bushels, and that average has been adopted in the calcu- 

 lation of 57,200,000 tons of food stuffs referred to above. 



