This contains sixteen maps showing the distribution, area and production of each of the principal crops. In addition to these definitive statistics, crop forecasts for all India are also published for the eleven crops shown in Appendix VIII. The Estimates of Area and Yield of the Principal Crops in India which include all the crops for which forecasts are issued and also tea, coffee, rubber and certain other crops are issued annually. This report contains final figures of area and yield for nine preceding years, and figures, which are liable to revision, for the year prior to publication, which takes place some six to nine months after the crops of this last year have been harvested. The figures for this year are, in effect, a preliminary issue of information which is later embodied with corrections in some of the Tables of the Agricultural Statistics. The Estimates of Area and Yield also contain information regarding rainfall in India and the yield of certain important crops in foreign countries, which is not subsequently embodied in the Agricultural Statistics. The only suggestions that we have to make in regard to the form and contents of this volume are that the figures of area and yield should be given separately for British India and the Indian States and that indigo should be omitted as it can no longer be regarded as one of the principal crops of India. The provincial crop forecasts, as well as those for the whole of India, are published in the Indian Trade Journal, a publication which is issued weekly by the Department of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics. The provincial forecasts are also published locally by the provincial authorities concerned except in the smaller provinces and in Indian States. The information on which these forecasts are based, with the exception of that for jute forecasts, is collected by the revenue departments, but, except in Burma and the Central Provinces, the forecasts themselves are prepared by the agricultural departments. Provided that the agricultural departments of Burma and the Central Provinces obtain the statistical assistance we recommend in paragraph 538 for the agricultural departments generally, we think it would be advantageous if, in these two provinces also, the forecasts were to be prepared by the agricultural departments. In Burma, however, we think that the rice forecast should continue to be prepared by the Commissioner of Settlements and Land Records. Detailed particulars respectingall-India forecasts will be found in Appendix VIII. The forecasts, in addition to the usual estimates of area and outturn of the crop to which they relate, give an account of the weather conditions affecting its growth and of the state of the crop in foreign countries. The Indian Trade Journal also publishes, weekly, a statement of the amount of cotton pressed in the different provinces compiled from information which the pressing factories are required to supply under the provisions of the Cotton Ginning and Pressing Act of 1925. The use of the Indian Trade Journal as the sole medium for the publication of forecasts is not satisfactory. The former practice of publishing them in leaflet form should be revived. A delay in the publication of a forecast by even a few days in order to conform with the publishing date of a weekly journal is obviously undesirable. Moreover, a leaflet can be sold at an anna or less whilst the Trade Journal costs four annas. This difference in price greatly curtails circulation. Arrangements should also be made for the issue of forecasts in the vernacular and for their supply to cultivators through such agencies as post offices, village libraries, co-operative societies and agricultural associations. The Agricultural Statistics of India contain particulars regarding livestock, ploughs and carts which are incorporated from the report on the census of livestock, ploughs and carts. This census has been held quinquennially since 1919-20 and the report includes comparative figures for foreign countries. Much statistical material of great interest to the agricultural investigator is also contained in the provincial season and crop reports and in the reports of the agricultural and veterinary departments which are all published annually. In the latter are gathered together the reports on the work of the experimental, seed, cattle breeding and other farms and on the various activities of the departments. The information contained in these provincial reports is condensed and the salient features of it are commented upon by the Agricultural Adviser to the Government of India in the Review of Agricultural Operations to which are appended Tables of statistics. Statistical information likely to be of interest to the general reader is also published from time to time in the Agricultural Journal of India. With the exception we make above in regard to forecasts, we consider that the present arrangements secure sufficiently wide publicity for agricultural statistics. Whether, as interest in statistical matters increases, the publication of a journal entirely devoted to statistical subjects of which agricultural statistics would form a section, would be useful, is a matter which, we think, may well be left for decision by the Central Bureau of Statistics the creation of which we recommend in paragraph 539. The annual provincial reports of the irrigation and forest departments and the annual review on Irrigation in India also contain much statistical material which the agricultural investigator will need to consult. We have emphasised, in our chapter on Irrigation, the importance of ordinary wells. It would be convenient if the annual provincial reports on irrigation and also the annual all-India review included in future the total number of ordinary wells divided into three classes: (a) the wells in actual use with the total area irrigated by them, (b) the wells in working order but not used and (c) abandoned wells. If the recommendations which we make in Chapter VIII for the creation of a Minor Forests Division in each province is accepted, statistics regarding the work of this division should be shown separately in each provincial forest return and in the all-India return; these returns should include a statement of the total area actually under timber, State and privately owned forests being shown separately. This information should be incorporated in the Agricultural Statistics. In the course of our investigations, we have discovered various discrepancies between the figures given in the departmental returns and those given in the Agricultural Statistics of India. Care should be taken to avoid these and, where any figure given in the latter volumes is a provisional figure, this should be explained in a footnote. Information regarding births, deaths and the general health of the population is published annually by each department of public health. The Public Health Commissioner with the Government of India also publishes an annual report in which this information is collected and presented on an all-India basis. Of the various publications which contain statistics of interest to the student of rural welfare, special mention may be made of the annual provincial and all-India reports on education, the annual provincial reports on the progress of the co-operative movement and the annual general reports on the administration of each province. The value of the reports on education would be much enhanced if the figures relating to rural and urban areas could be shown separately and if a uniform system of classification of schools could be adopted in all provinces. We recommend that an attempt should be made to do this. Finally, the Statistical Abstract for British India, which is published annually by the Department of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics, summarises much of the information regarding crops, livestock, trade in agricultural products, and the state of the population which is contained in the reports enumerated above. In the four succeeding paragraphs, the primary statistics relating to cultivation and crops, livestock, vital statistics and rural development will be examined in greater detail. CULTIVATION AND CROP (ORDINARY). STATISTICS (i) CLASSIFICATION 526. Hitherto, the area of each province, as given in the Agricultural Statistics of India, has been divided into land cultivated and uncultivated and forests. The cultivated area is subdivided into the net area actually sown and current fallows. The maximum period for which land left uncultivated is treated as fallow varies according to local laws and customs, from two years in the Punjab to ten years in Bombay. After the expiry of these varying periods, the land, if still left uncultivated, is included, for statistical purposes, under the head of culturable waste. OF AREA. The uncultivated area is divided into "culturable waste other than fallow" and land "not available for cultivation." This division of the uncultivated area is to a large extent arbitrary. In Burma, it is admitted that it is based mainly on guess work and this is also probably true to a large extent of other provinces. In our chapter on Forests, we have recommended that a reclassification of forest areas should be undertaken with a view to deciding what proportion of forest lands could more profitably be put to some other purpose. We regard it also as important that the classification both of culturable waste and land not available |