Abstract

According to the "Famine Enquiry Commission Report" recently published by the Government of India, the self sufficiency in cereals at à satisfactory level, should be the cardinal aim of Food and Agricultural Policy of our Government to solve the acute food shortage in the country. As envisaged by Dr. Burns, formerly Agricultural Commissioner with the Government of India, a 30% increase in production of cereals is urgent and there is no reason why this could not be achieved as a result of the "Grow More Food" Campaign launched by the Provincial and Central Governments on an intensive and extensive scale. Taking rice, we produce in the Province an average of only 5 million tons of rice from 10 million acres under paddy both irrigated and dry; and this is undoubtedly the most depressing part about our agriculture. The low production is mainly due to lack of water and manure. It is the unanimous opinion of the Agricultural experts, that given ample water and manure, the rice yield can be forced up very much higher. The average yield of wet paddy lands (8 million acres) in the Province is about 1,400 lbs. per acre. The population of Madras Province is approximately 50 millions and working at the rate of 16 oz. per head, the total quantity of rice required to feed the whole population is about 8 million tons of cleaned rice per annum. In other words, we have to increase our production of the present 5 million to 8 million tons.

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