Irrigation
Irrigation works have a special importance in an agricultural country like India, where the rainfall is unequally distributed throughout the seasons and is liable to failure or serious deficiency. The famines of 1896 and 1901 clearly showed the need and importance of protective irrigation works. Lord Curzon appointed a Commission on Irrigation in 1901, which submitted its report in 1903. A new chapter in the irrigation policy of the Government was open by the recommendations of this Commission. Among other things, it specially recommended the possible extension of the scope of productive, especially protective irrigation works for the Deccan districts of Bombay, Madras, the Central Provinces and Bundelkhand. It sketched out a rough programme of irrigation works for the next twenty years, adding 64 million acres to the irrigated area at an estimated cost of 30,000,000 pounds.
There are three classes of irrigation works in India: (i) Wells, (ii) Tanks, and (iii) Canals. The canals are of three kinds: (a) Perennial- canals, (b) Inundation canals, and (c) Storage works. Since 1921 irrigation works have been classified under two main heads: (i) Productive, and (ii) Unproductive, with a third class covering areas irrigated by non-capital works.
After the reforms of 1919, irrigation became a Provincial subject. The Provincial Governments have shown much activity regarding irrigation works, and the important measures that have been undertaken in this direction, are: (i) The Sutlej Valley project in the Punjab, completed in 1933, (ii) the Sukkur Barrage in Sind, completed in 1932, (iii) the Kaverl Reservoir and Mettur project, completed in 1934, (iv) the Nizamasagar project, completed in 1934, (v) the Sarda-Oudh canals in the United Provinces, and (vi) the Lloyd Dam in Bombay, completed in 1926, which is one of the largest masses of masonry in the world.
Agriculture, Rural Indebtedness and Rural Reconstruction, and the Co-operative Movement
Agriculture
As a result of the recommendations of the Famine Commission of 1880, agricultural departments were started in the various Provinces. In 1901 an Inspector-General of Agriculture was appointed to advise the Imperial and Provincial Governments. This post was abolished in 1912, and its duties were transferred to the Director of the Agricultural Research Institute at Pusa, who was until 1929 Agricultural Adviser to the Government of India. The present Departments of Agriculture, however, owe their existence to Lord Curzon, whose famous despatch of 1903 marked the beginning of a reorganization in 1905. The Pusa Institute was started in 1903, together with a college to provide for advanced agricultural training. An All-India Board of Agriculture was established in 1905 with a view to bringing the Provincial Governments more in touch with one another and making suitable recommendations to the Government of India. The Indian Agricultural Service was constituted in 1906. An agricultural college was founded at Poona in 1908 and similar colleges were started in subsequent years at Cawnpore, Nagpur, Lyallpur, Coimbatore, and Mandalay.
With the introduction of the reforms of 1919, agriculture became a Transferred subject under a Minister, though the Government of India retained responsibility for central research institutions and for certain affairs relating to the diseases and pests of plants and animals. The Royal Commission on Agriculture (Linlithgow Commission) authoritatively reviewed the position of agriculture in India and reported in 1928. Having duly recognised the work done by the agricultural departments, the Commission stressed the enormous possibilities for future work and made comprehensive recommendations regarding the different problems of agriculture. On its recommendation, an important step was taken in July, 1929, by the establishment of the Imperial Council of Agricultural Research, whose primary function was to promote, guide and co-ordinate agricultural, including veterinary, research in India and to extend help in these matters to the Provincial departments of agriculture. The Central Banking Enquiry Committee (1931) recommended that a Provincial Board of Economic Enquiry should be established in each Province to supply the Government with the information it requires to be able to pursue a constructive agricultural policy. Sir John Russell and R Wright, who subsequently reviewed the progress of agricultural research work in India, made, in their report, important recommendations to bridge the gulf between the research worker and the cultivator. These were examined by a special Sub-Committee of the Imperial Council of Agricultural Research. The Government of India declared their intention to extend further help to the agriculturists by providing better facilities for credit and for the marketing of agricultural produce. A central marketing section was started under the Imperial Council of Agricultural Research. It worked in collaboration with the marketing staff in the different Provinces.
Rural Indebtedness and Rural Reconstruction
Closely connected with agriculture is the serious problem of heavy rural indebtedness in modern India. As the Central Banking Enquiry Committee reported in 1931, the total agricultural indebtedness of the Provinces in British India was about 900 crores of rupees. The greater part of the rural debt, contracted at exorbitant rates of interest, is unproductive. The Government adopted certain measures, from time to time, to deal with these problems. The Usurious Loans Act, consolidated and amended in 1918, tried to determine the legal maximum amount of interest recoverable. The Royal Commission on Agriculture recommended regulation of money- lending, and some of the Provincial Banking Enquiry Committees recommended licensing of money- lenders. Land Alienation Acts were passed in order to restrict the transfer of land. For example, the Punjab Land Alienation Act (1900) prohibited non-agricultural classes from buying land from agriculturists or taking land on mortgage for more than twenty years.
In recent times rural reconstruction claimed an increasing amount of attention both from the Government and the Congress. Mr. F.L. Brayne, I.C.S., tried, as Commissioner for Rural Reconstruction, an important experiment in rural uplift in the Gurgaon District of the Punjab. A similar appointment was made in Bengal. In the Central Provinces and Berar the local government carried on similar work from November, 1929. During the latter part of 1933 His Excellency Sir Frederick Sykes, the then Governor of Bombay, initiated a comprehensive scheme of village reconstruction, the work of which was carried on by District Committees under the guidance of the District Collectors. The Government of India also took an interest in the work of rural reconstruction and granted in 1935-1936 over two crores of rupees for this purpose. The Co-operative Movement in India also aims at solving the problem of rural indebtedness.
