INDIAN AGRICULTURE

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 109, 9 May 1923, Page 13

INDIAN AGRICULTURE

A YEAR'S OPERATIONS REVIEWED

POTENTIALITIES OF RESEARCH.

A reference to the "Review of Agricultural Operations in India—l92l-22" recently issued will convince the reader of the increasingly vital importance of ths work of the Department of Agriculture, says the Calcutta "Englishman." At present India is a poor.country and probably she can, as a whole, never become rich in the sense that Britain and America are rich. Nevertheless there i 3 a burning and perfectly natural desire amongst many Indians to raise the standard of living among3t their countrymen. This desire, which has at times manifested itself in more or less acute, and even violent, forms of discontent, may be the result of the Western education, which is becoming so widespread; but in any case it is intensely real In such a state ol mind it is only natural to look round with the object of discovering how this laudable ambition to improve tho economic status of Indians can be realised, and those who are making such inquiries should seize on tha work of the Department of Agriculture in India as at least one certain means of progress. The figures given show the total area. of improved crops grown in India last years to be nearly 3,000,000 acres, and as the increased net revenue from each acre so sown may be conservatively estimated at Rs., 15, we find that the Agricultural Department has already increased the aggregate income of ths Indian cultivator oy about Rs. 4j crores per annum. The Department of Agriculture in its present form has only been in existence for about 17 years and irreat as are the. results of its work, they really only represent the fringe of what is possible. For instance, the crops into which investigations are being made, represent a, total area of 182,000,000 acres, of which only 3,000,000 acres, or 1-60, are at present growing improved varieties. It is only possible to mention a few of the most important of the numerous investigations, the progress of which is described in the report. For instance, befor the establishment of the sugar-cane breeding station at Coimbatore, India had to rely on foreign research stations for the new canes of which Bhe is.so badly in neetl. Coimbatore has now produced hybrid canes, of which one parent is the wild sugar-cane, Saccharam spontaneum. These new canes ar« being tried _ all over India, and already in Bihar and elsewhere, have shown themselves to be possessed of the good sugar yielding capacity of the.cultivated parent as well as the vitality and capacity to '• resist drought and disease of the wild parent. The possibilities of this investigation may be realised- from the fa«t that in Bihar the new canes are yielding nearly three times the produce of the local canes grown under the same conditions. Sugar is the only agricultural product in which the balance of tracU. is against India, for it was necessary last year to import 700,----000 tons, or nearly 28 per cent, of the amount produced in India at a cost of Bs. 26 314 croree. But the new canes in Bihar are showing a much greater margin over local races th.ro 28 per cent., and it is safe to hope that in a seasonable time India will not only not havn to pay out the Be. 26 crorea which «h» paid last year, for sugar, but that eh» will actually export sugar and derive a revenue from it.

Everyone, at least everyone who hag lived in Bihar, or North-West«m India, has heard of Lathyrism, the curious form of paralysis which has ;froin time immorial been associated with eating khesari (Lathyrus sativus). It now appears fairly certain that the ill effect is not due to the khesari itself, but to the seed of leguminous weeds found in all samples of khesari from localities where Latfcyvism is common.,

In Bengal the non-chjorotic strains of jute are not only high yieldijrs, and also disease resistant, but they can be sown a • month later than chloi'otio races. This brings a largely increased area into the potential jute growing tract. The yielding 'capacity of the new races, is fully 20 per cent, higher than that of ordinary ones, and this," together with the wider area over which jute cultivaiton is now poasible, are preparations against the time which will surely come when the demand for jute will again reach its old dimensions- It is to be remembered that jute ds the great revenue crop of North-Esatern India and* that, all things considered-, the jute cultivator of Bengal ia probably the wealthiest of his kind in India. The possible extension' of the jute-growing area will, therefore, prove a welcome source of profit to many cultivators who are at pre* sent outside the jute traot.

That the problems of milk supply and of draught cattle are acute » Bengal is well known; but the results obtained at Pusa and at the Bengal Cattle Farm at Rangpur are unexpectedly full of promise. Pusa investigations have established that the milking strain is prepotent in the sire; while at Bangpur, pedigree bulls of good stature and possessing a hereditary milking strain are now being produced and »ent out to the districts. At the same time the equally important fodder question is under inquiry. Manurial experiments of far-reaching importance, offering a largely increased net revenue, apart from that which is brought in by the cultivation of improved crops; the application of motor power to the cultivation of the soil; the study of diseases of plants and animals; also of useful insects, and of bacteria, useful and destructive; agricultural education; the organisation of 'societies for the improvement of agriculture; and even preparations against the ravages of storm, flood, and famine; all these are comprised in the beneficent activities of the Department of Agriculture in India. The people of India could have no sounder investment than agricultural research, for its potentialities are enormous. It is to be hoped that Governments will, even in their enthusiasm for retrenchment, recognise these vital principles and not, for the sake of a temporary saving, cripple so powerful an agent for the public welfare.