RECENT TRENDS IN CROP IMPROVEMENT IN INDIA

Until recently, famine used to be a regular feature of our history. Towards the end of the last century, several Famine Commissions were appointed and detailed codes for providing relief to the affected population were drawn up. These ‘Famine Codes’ or ‘Scarcity Manuals’ are still in use in several States. An important part of the training of local administrators consisted of making them capable of assessing the extent of crop loss caused by drought, floods or pest-epidemics. This procedure, known as the “Annawari” method, was based on the old monetary system of having 16 annas in a rupee; thus a crop which is 50 % of the normal in its yield potential was an 8-anna crop. The last major famine occurred in 1943 during World War II when the rice crop of Bengal was severely damaged by a fungal disease…