Bengal Agriculture 1920-1946: A Quantitative Study (Cambridge South Asian Studies)

This is a study of agricultural development in undivided Bengal during the period 1920-1946. The first part of the book is devoted to a close examination of the quality of the officially published crop statistics and a detailed analysis of the trends in cropped area, output and yield per acre. Particular topics discussed are the gradual deterioration in per capita crop production and the economic roots of the Bengal famine in 1943. The second part of the book deals with the factors that directly or indirectly affected crop trends. Amongst these are the effect of crop prices on area sown. Trends in physical capacity of Bengal agriculture are analysed and compared with those in the visible supply of labour and crop output. The problem of agricultural credit is discussed and the progress of the Co-operative credit movement evaluated.