Official Yields Per Acre in India, 1886-1947; Some Questions of Interpretation

Abstract

A main concern of historical studies of agriculture has been the trend in simple welfare measures like total and per capita production. These welfare measures are of particular importance for interpreting the economic history of India since 1880 because of the dominance of the agricultural sector. Over half the value of total output consisted of agricultural crops; further output per worker in agriculture is often taken as an approximation for trends in output per worker in other sectors, particularly services. Total and per capita production are affected by changes in acreage in all crops, change in acreage from lower to higher yielding crops, and changes in the yield of each crop. In this paper our concern is only with yields per acre in various crops, and not with changes in total acreage or crop composition, even though these latter two factors may be quantitatively more important in affecting agricultural output. However, the effects of acreage increases and changes in cropping patterns are in turn dependent on what yields per acre are assumed for the changed acreage, and cannot be properly assessed without knowledge of yield changes. It is generally accepted that yields per acre as well as total availability of food grains declined under the British during the period 1890-1947. Blyn (1966) has demonstrated that acceptance of official statistics on acreage and output in India means acceptance of a declining per capita availability of foodgrains. Blyn (1966 : 151) found the trend in yields to be -0.18% per year for foodgrains during *The research underlying this paper was done as a fellow of the American Institute of Indian Studies during the year !965-66. The author is indebted to the Record