Agricultural Education and Colonial Development

Abstract

IN your issue of January 11 reference is made to the requirement which has recently arisen for specialists in agriculture and the allied sciences for employment in the British colonies and dependencies. The case, so far as India is concerned, may be stated very briefly. The Government is willing to spend money in the development of agricultural education and research, but the efficient recruitment of the department—or, more properly, departments, for there are eight local governments in India and Burma, each of which will have its own separate agricultural department—is not an easy matter. The educated native of India has not hitherto devoted the interest to the study of agriculture that he has to law and medicine, and men qualified to give instruction or conduct investigations in relation to this national industry are not to be found in the country. It is quite unnecessary to raise the question as to whether they will be obtainable in the future. This is one of the great desires of the Indian Government. In the meantime, however, men qualified to fill the offices above indicated are required, and a search has to be made elsewhere. In this respect, then, India appears to be drawing upon the same market as other countries.