Evening star., 1943-03-28
Agriculture
In India
BIZ Frederic J. Hdsktn.

| portant of all industries, and in no other
! country Is it more important factor in
national life and prosperity than In In
dia. In agriculture India holds unique
position in the British Empire Stretch
ing from the latitude of Cairo to within
a few degrees of the Equator, the coun-
try embraces an enormous variety Of
soils and climates, and the produce of
the soil ranges from the important crops,
such as wheat, of temperate countries, to
rubber and coconuts, which are the prod
uctS of tropical lands.
Agriculture, to large extent, is more
important to India than to any other
country in the world, for from 1881 to
1941 the population increased by 50000,-
900, which is more than the United King
doms total population OF 47,000,000. This
enormous population growth, like the
countrys other millions, must depend
largely upon the fruits of the soil for sus-
tenance. Briefly, it means that the land
must support 100000 additional persons
each year. 1t is such economic facts as
these that have caused the whole world
to look hopefully toward India that it
may become not only a larger farming
area, but that the country may more
rapidly adopt modern methods of farm
ing so that larger crops can be grown on
the millions of acres now planted.
India is country with an ancient civil
lzatlon of its own, and, in common with
other arts, an indigenous system of agri-
culture has flourished there for CEN
turies. This indigenous system of agri-
culture, based as it is on the cumulative
experience of many generations, con-
tains much that is valuable, and in gen.
eral gives the cultvator or tiller of the
soil a return for his labor without in
volving him in expenditures for costly
implements and fertilizers.
The return which the cultivator gets is
low under these circumstances, but the
efforts of the agriculture departments in
India for the past so years, have been
directed toward the improvement of the
quantity and quality of the products Of
Indian farming and the raising of the
standard Of living among the peasantry.
There could be no more potent factor in
improvement of the trade of the world
than an increase in the purchasing
power of the some 400 900 900 people, @.
India
Departments of agriculture on a ma.
tional scale are widespread in India,
touching every part of the vast land, and
each province has department which
is concerned with the investigation of To-
cal problems and agricultural education.
The government of India itself maintains
research council for the financing of
schemes of research, and a central agency
for the study of problems of all-India i'm
portance, and for imparting advanced
technical instruction in various branches
of agricultural science.
The crops which constitute the staple
products of India may be divided in an
economic sense into two classes: Food
crops, which the farmer eats, and the
money crops which he sells Wheat, rice
and various other grains are typical of
the former. while tobacco, jute and COT
ton are good examples of the latter.
The wheat crop in India covers ap-
proXimately 30000000 acres, stretching
from Bengal to the northwest frontier
provinces, and south into the central
provinces. The annual production Of
wheat is about 100000 tons. The
wheat grown in the United States and
Canada, but in recent years there have
been vast Improvements in types and
agricultural experts say that in few
years India's quality Of wheat will COM
pare favorably with wheat grown In any
part of the world.
Rice is an important crop in India,
and in recent years extensive research on
its improvement has been carried on in
nearly every province. These research
centers are financed by the Indian gov
ernment, and although the work is COM
paratively new, results are already being
obtained in the production of more rices
of high yielding power. Corresponding
ly, the quantity has also increased to
great extent
Oil seeds constitute valuable crop in
India, and each year it becomes larger
and more important, not only to India,
but to large areas of the world. Because
lnseed oil is so essential in many indus
tries, emphasis in recent times has been
placed particularly on this product.
White or yellow is preferred to brown.
and consequently an ever-increasng
number of acres are planted in seeds for
the production of these more salable
grades OF oil.
Sugar cane furnishes perhaps the most
striking example of Indian agriculture
which has developed as the result Of i'm
provements in the raw material of the
industry due to research. Only Is years
ago India was importing large quantities
of sugar from Java, but these imports
have dropped to negligible tonnage and
within the next or 10 years India hopes
to be not only self-sufficient in sugar,
but an exporter as we'll
Since IS per cent of the worlds jute
comes from India, it is obvious that the
crop is Of primary Importance. The jute
plant is related to the lime tree, be-
longs to the same natural order and
grows in a straight tall stem from to
II feet high. The fiber is extracted from
the stems by soaking the cut stems in
water and allowing bacterial action to
destroy the softer tissues. One agricul-
tural laboratory devoted exclusively to
the production of better grades of jute
has been able to add many new vari-
ties of the plant.
Cotton is also an important crop,
especially in the Punjab, Western India
and Madras, and production stands Sec
ond to that of the United States Tobac-
CO, too, is major crop, involving the
| nlantinp of a ho,1t 0OO nm arres q ma ior