AGRICULTURE AND IRRIGATION

FAMINES

The following account relating to famines, Hoods and other natural calamities is reproduced from the old Gazetteer of Akola district.

"Early Period [Central Provinces and Berar District Gazetteers, Akola District. 1910, pp. 237 to 243. and 245 to 249.] : Akola District in 1899-1900. In Akola in the two years which succeeded the famine of 1896-1897 the rainfall was deficient but came at the right times to secure good kharif crops. There were thus good harvests of cotton and jawan, and stocks of the chief food grain were replenished, though prices were low. Rabi crops had been poor for three years. They occupied only 7 per cent of the whole cropped area, but the loss was considerable, especially as the people were unaccustomed to poor crops. The rains of 1899 commenced in the second week of June, but for the whole period of the monsoon gave only scattered showers. The average rainfall of the District for the preceding 10 years had been 5 inches in June, 10 in July, 6 in August, and 6 in September. In 1899 there were only 3 inches in June, 2 in July, 1½ in August, and 1 in September; and the local distribution of even this scanty fall was most irregular. There were constantly promising clouds, and cultivators remained hopeful right into September. As many as three sowings were often made, and people looked forward to good rabi crops when it was too late to sow jawari, but the rain never came. There were in a few villages close under the hills a little stunted jawari and a cotton crop estimated at something between half an anna and one anna in the rupee, but with this trifling exception the crops were a total failure. The loss to the whole District entailed by this failure of all unirrigated crops was estimated at Rs. 1,13,45,310. The irrigated area, though the largest on record, was under 10,000 acres, or less than 1/10 per cent of the whole cultivated area of the District. It was believed, though certainty was impossible, that there was less jawari in hand at the beginning of the second famine than in 1896. At any rate the greatly increased demand in the rigorous and widespread famine of 1899 caused prices to rise more quickly than in the earlier year. The average price of jawari during the period just before the famine had varied only between 19 and 22 seers at different times of the year. In September 1899 it was 14 seers, from October to May 1900 it was 10, from June to August 9, in September and October 10, then 12 in November, lb in December, and presently a normal price again. Even though local crops had completely failed it was at first thought that the stocks in the District were sufficient to allow of export, which continued briskly from August to November, the jawari going chiefly to Bombay and a considerable quantity was lost by repeated sowings. Prices reached a famine level by September. From December till the end of the famine cheap rice from Burma and pulses and various other kinds of grain from northern India poured into the District, and this kept the price of jawari fairly steady in most places though in some villages remote from the main roads it rose to 7 seers a rupee. Competition was too active, and in most parts communications were too good, for anv ring to be formed to keep up prices. Famine conditions were prolonged owing to the cotton crop of 1900-1901 being backward. The monsoon burst late, and cultivators found a difficulty in getting seed and bullocks, and in paying for labour. Thus the labourers who had come to relief works found agricultural labour scarce till the harvest began, and they suffered more acutely during the months from July to October 1900 than at any other time. The population of the District was 5,75,000, of whom 35 per cent were petty cultivators and 31 per cent agricultural labourers.

Relief measures: Preparations for a very severe famine were begun in August and the District Board was asked to be ready to start test works at a week's notice. The Board responded promptly and admirably, and proved able unaided to meet the great rushes of panicstricken labourers that ensued. Four test works were opened in September and their number was increased to ten in October. In the middle of September they contained 1,700 workers, at the end of the month 6,000, and by the middle of October, 13,600. Eight of them were then converted into large relief works under the Public Works Department, and more similar works were added till they numbered 23 in June 1900. The chief relief works were devoted to the repair of the great roads and of certain tanks and to the earthwork of the proposed Khandwa-Akola-Basim and Khamgaon-Jalna railways, but very numerous minor works were also carried out. The number of labourers on these works rose from 30,000, or 5 per cent of the population, at the end of November to 60,000, or 10 per rent, in December and to 83,000 or 14½ per cent, towards the end of June. In the middle of November kitchens were attached to works for the relief of dependents, the number of whom gradually rose to nearly 13,000 in May. At first many of the better class of workers supported their families out of their earnings and reserves, but this gradually became impossible. Gratuitous relief by private charity was organised in August and preparations for the distribution of Government doles were completed in November, though distribution was not commenced till January. The number in receipt of these doles rose in June and July to nearly 6,000. As the private grain funds in villages became exhausted, which happened in the hot weather, names were transferred from their lists to Government lists. An order to open village kitchens was received from the Resident in April and was carried into effect in May. They were meant chiefly for the relief of poor children and proved most effective. Their number was increased when the breaking of the monsoon caused people to return to their villages, and as the system was more economical than that of relief by doles incapable adults were transferred from the doles list to the kitchen list. In August the number of kitchens at work was 146, the total number of inhabited villages in the District being 966, and on a date towards the close of September the number of persons relieved by them was 25,000, or over 4 per cent of the population. Poor-houses were opend early in December 1899. They were established at the five taluka headquarters and at Shegaon in Khamgaon taluka and Telhara in Akot taluka. They were periodically cleared out, incapable wanderers being alone retained and others being sent either to their villages for gratuitous relief or to relief works. During the four months from April to July over 15 per cent of the population was in receipt of relief, and this proportion rose in June to 19 per cent. Apparently about 25 per cent of the labourers on receipt works in the hot season were cultivators, but almost all of these returned to their villages when sowing commenced. Cultivators needed their little saving for the preservation of their cattle, a far more expensive matter than the preservation of human life; they could only have obtained credit on ruinous terms, but were able to maintain their position fairly well by coming to the relief works. The proof of this is that no land was relinquished; the normal area was brought under cultivation in the next year, showing the resisting power of the cultivating class. District officers remarked the small proportion of Muhammndans on the works and considered that a distaste for manual labour was one of the causes. The cost of supporting an adult during the 14 months of the famine was estimated at Rs. 52, and that of every head of cattle saved at Rs. 100 or more. Well-to do cultivators freely took advantage of cheap labour to improve their property, and great private charity was exercised by all classes. The Indian Charitable Relief Fund received subscriptions of Rs. 1,83,000 to it. Labourers on relief works were often reputed to be lazy, and their work was finally valued at only a quarter of what it cost, but Kunbis showed both considerable independence and great gratitude for the help of the fund.

Economic effects: In the year 1895-1890, which was a normal year, there were registered 3,390 mortgages of land with a value of Rs. 10,77.000, and 4,160 sales of land with a value of Rs. 11,00,000; in 1899-1900 the mortgages numbered 4,550 and were valued at Rs. 10,38,000. and the sales numbered 4,050 at a value of Rs. 10,30,000. Thus the mortgages increased in lumber by 35 per cent, though the increase in value was by no means proportionate, and the sales decreased in both number and value. Compared with the famine of 1896-1897 the mortgages of the second famine increased by 24 per cent, and the sales decreased by 2 per cent. Many cultivators again would be unwilling to mortgage their land and would obtain loans on simple bonds or on stamped acknowledgements. Yet even if the figures are regarded in the most unfavourable light it is clear that the cultivating class survived the disaster of a second and very rigorous famine far better than might have been feared. Weavers were expected to go to the ordinary relief works if they were capable of doing ordinary work; relief was given in their own villages to others from March 1900, the total number so assisted being 13,000. There are few weavers in the District, and most of these live in Akola, Akot, and Balapur. It was calculated that nearly Rs. 7,00,000 worth of gold and silver ornaments and utensils were sold during the famine, but it was impossible to get exact statistics. The selling rate in these cases involved a loss of about 36 per cent; brass and copper utensils sold at a loss of 50 per cent. Far more of these articles were sold than in the former famine: gold and silver idols were openly offered in the market. The total value mentioned would come to R. 1-4 per head of the population. A little emigration into the Nizam's Dominions occurred at the very beginning of the famine owing to false reports of good crops and of the generosity of some Raja there, but most of the wanderers soon came back. Some of the smaller villages were wholly or partially deserted while the people were away at the relief works, but by the end of the famine the inhabitants had returned and there were few visible traces of their wanderings except occasional ruined houses. Indebtedness must have increased considerably and there was a great loss of cattle, the better class of cultivators suffering even more than the poorer, but considering that this was the severest famine on record and that it closely followed another famine extraordinarily little permanent harm was done. This must be attributed to the general previous prosperity of the District and the very liberal assistance given by Government. In both famines the labouring class, once the immediate stress had passed, was left very little the worse.

Basim District in 1899-1900: Basim District also was severely affected by the famine of 1899-1900. Relief measures were begun in the middle of November in the former year and continued till nearly the middle of December in the latter. The district contain-ed a population of close upon 4,00,000, of whom about 70 per cent were either agriculturists or agricultural labourers; 5 or 6 per cent more were unskilled labourers and would suffer equally severely from a general failure of employment. Distress was more Widespread than was anticipated in the report submitted in October 1899, partly because it was impossible at that time to foresee how complete would be the failure of crops and partly because of an extraordinary influx of people from the Nizam's Dominiors. The famine was very acute everywhere but was most severe n Pusad taluka and in the south-west of Basim taluka around Risod. Much of the land in Pusad taluka is poor and very many of the cultivators were Andhs and Banjaras, people averse to steady labour and in the habit even in good years of living frorr hand to mouth. In Risod pargana there was usually a great deal of rabi cultivation, which this year failed entirely, and the land was to an unusual extent in the hands of sahukars. The rains of 1899 set in favourably and though they were much below the average there were occasional falls till the middle of September; but by the beginning of November most of the jawari had withered so much that the cultivators cut it merely for fodder; its estimated outturn was only a fraction per cent of the normal. Scarcely any rabi was sown and practically none survived; irrigation is always negligibly small. Good harvests in the two years following the famine of 1899-1900 had brought the price of jawari to a normal rate; this was maintained till September 1899, but a great deal of grain was exported in that month and the following, and prices then rose at a much more rapid rate than in the previous famine; jawari was selling at 10 or 11 seers per rupee till January of the previous famine, but it rose to 8 or 9 by October of this one. The unpromising opening of the rains of 1900 caused prices to remain high for a long time. Cultivators in Berar do not work as hard as they do in some plan's, owing to the prospect of discipline and fairly hard work in the camps they did not as a rule seek relief till their resources were really exhausted; the minimum wage was rather low, hut many people preferred to remain upon it rather than do a fair amount of work. When the rains broke labourers sometimes lived largely on jungle produce in order to save something out of their wages, and their health suffered in consequence. Wages were reduced in July and replaced by cooked food in November, when the number of labourers fell greatly. Adult dependents and non-working children on relief works were from the beginning given cooked food, the cooks being generally Kunbis; this answered well on the whole, suiting all the lower castes except Bhois. Sheds were erected that children might be kept in the shade. During the dry months labour was concentrated on large works, generally road-making: people were usually reluctant to go far from their homes; in June small works were opened so that they might obtain relief near their own villages. Such Mahars as were left in the villages for public work were given gratuitous relief and also made some profit by selling the hides of dead animals, the flesh of which they ate. Offences against property increased from 460 in the previous years to 1,440 in the famine year, the largest propor-tionate increase in Berar. The District contained a large number of Charan Banjaras who found regular work very distasteful; they wandered a great deal, suffered severely, and were responsible for much of the crime committed. Immigrants from the Nizam's Dominions also wandered aimlessly, especially if any attempt was made to send them back to their homes from which they had just made a long and painful journey; residents of the District as a rule moved little and with deliberation."

1918-1939 : The scarcity of 1918-19 was not due. to any failure of crops which were fair but to an abnormal rise in prices which hit hard the poorer classes of the population including the labourers and to the influenza epidemic which carried off large numbers of people and left the survivors weak in body, and broken in spirit. No special relief works were necessary. relicT being given in the shape of (1) cheap grain shops and (2) cash doles to the destitute. The conditions during 1920-21 recalled those of 1899-1900; the rainfall was scanty even in July and August and no rain fell at all after about the middle of September. The area affected was curiously enough, only the four plain tahsils where cotton yielded an outturn of five annas while jowar and rabi failed almost completely. The bad conditions prevailing in 1926-27 were due to the excessive rain of July and August followed by complete cessation of rain in September 1926. The situation was met by an expansion of ordinary works, test works never attracting any very large number of labourers. Land improvement loans were also provided to a considerable number of labourers. In 1931-32 kharif crops were damaged on account of the excessive rain and floods of October 1931 and relief was given in the shape of suspensions and remissions of the land revenue. Test works were also opened as a measure of safely but events proved that they were not really required. The district as a whole, predominantly produces kharif crops and failure of the crops is nearly always due to a short fall of rain, more particularly in September. Since the great famine of 1900 the only serious failure was that of 1920-21 when scarcity was declared in the four plain tahsils. In 1935, owing to the vagaries of the monsoon there was a partial failure of crops in Akola, Akot, Balapur and Murtizapur tahsils and land revenue to the extent of Rs. 4,25,818 was suspended. There was a fear of unemployment and distress among agricultural labourers in summer. Test works were opened to ascertain the extent of unemployment at two places viz., Dhotra and Anbhora in Murtizapur tahsil. The works were opened in the 3rd week of April and were kept open til! the 3rd week of May but none of the camps attracted sufficient number of labourers. In 1938-39, the harvest was not good. The monsoon of 1939-40 was very weak and from the middle of July there was a prolonged drought, weeding operations were found unnecessary and therefore, this resulted in severe unemployment. In June 1939 it was found that the situation had taken a turn for the worse and there was cause for considerable alarm. In consideration of unemployment taking place on a large scale, nine test works in different centres were opened as early as March 1939 and kept open till May 1939, but the feebleness of the monsoon and the consequent absence of any demand for labour for weeding operations made it necessary to reopen test works early in August 1939. As many as 47 test works were opened in August 1939. Earth works were also opened to supplement the test works. Free removal of fuel and grass was allowed from all forest areas from August 1939. By the end of August as many as 22,000 labourers were working at these test works. There was rain in August which improved the situation and by the middle of September, half the number of workers left for their villages. In October 1939, 19 quarries were closed and by the middle of November almost all the quarries were closed. Apart from providing work, cheap grain shops were opened to sell jowar at reduced rates at several places. Funds were collected by the various committees to relieve distress by distribution of grain and cooked food. The suspension amounted to Rs. 4,38,900 in 1938-39 and an amount of Rs. 1,74,341 in 1938-39 and of Rs. 15,312 in 1939-40 was remitted. Besides Rs. 79,200 in 1938-39 and Rs. 34,360 in 1939-40 were granted as agricultural loans and a sum of Rs 3,96,151-14-0 in 1938-39 and of Rs. 86,755 in 1939-40 was disbursed as land improvement loans. Forest concessions to the extent of Rs. 3,000 were also granted.

1942-50: The agricultural season of 1942-43 opened with adequate rainfall but continuance of rain in July and August damaged the crops. The break in the monsoon came too late in September and most of the kharif crops had been badly damaged. Thereafter there was no rain and this also damagcd crops specs ally on lighter soils. Washim tahsil was the worst affeeted except Gowardhan and Risod circles. By the end of February signs of acute distress were visible and complaints of lack of employment began to pour in. There was some migration into the Marathawada region in view of the comparatively good rabi harvest there. Famine works were therefore started in April 1943. About 800 workers were given employment; 4 quarries were opened at Jagmata, Irla. Parch Asra and Rithad. Attendanee at the quarries was fair till May. but from May onwards attendance became poorer and by the end of June all the centres, were closed. Suspension to the extent of Rs. 40,646 was granted and Rs. 45,000 were disbursed as taccavi loans. The scarcity was not very acute or widespread. It was confined to small areas and the opening of test works gave timely and sufficient relief. In 1919-30, Washim tahsil was affeeted because of heavy rainfall. Successive bad harvests since 1947 coupled with high prices altered the situation as a result of which employment opportunities ceased to exist for casual agricultural labourers in the rural areas. In Washim tahsil the crops ware also damaged because of excessive rainfall. In the other parts of the tahsil the position was not very much better. From March 1950, complaints of unemployment began to be received and 28 test works were opened from the middle of April. Bui the test works did not attract the expected number of Labourers and many of them were closed by the end of June. In 1950-51 the rainfall during the beginning of monsoon was quite satisfactory and crop operations were done normally. There was a sudden break in the rains which lasted from July to August 1950 with the result that all weeding operations in the village-were suspended resulting into unemployment. 28 test works were opened at several places which employed 2,21,545 labourers with a daily average of 3,871 persons. Again, there was a welcome shower on 29th and 30th August, 1950 and it appeared as if this district was going to have bumper jowar and cotton crops. The position remained very satisfactory till about the third week of September. But again there was a break in rains from 20-9-1950 to 23-12-1950. A few showers were received in certain parts of the district mostly in Murtizapur and Washim tahsils but there were no rains from about the middle of September in the rest of the district. About the first week of October 1950, nervousness prevailed all over the district and it appeared as if the district was on the brink of a total crop failure. Fields after fields were gel-ting dried up and the jowar crop stood without any ears. The conditions became desperate during October and it became almost certain that the district would not have more than three or four annas worth outturn in jowar and a little more in cotton. People started cutting the crops for the sake of fodder only. However, surprisingly enough the weather suddenly became very cool towards the last week of October and beginning of November 1950, and the cool breeze coupled with few drops improved the situation immediately. Even stumps which were about to dry revived and the condition of grain in the jowar ears improved. Almost overnight, the situation changed and except in few parts of Balapur and Akot tahsils everywhere the condition of crops improved beyond expectation. Relief and suspensions were granted as follows:—

There was no acute scarcity in the district from the year 1951 to 1964. But from 1961-62 to 1967-68 due to inadequate rainfall, scarcity conditions were declared in the district. The following table shows the position of works undertaken and expenditure incurred during the years 1961-62, 1963-64, and from 1965-66 to 1967-68.

TABLE No. 28

Scarcity Works Undertaken and Expenditure incurred during 1961-62, 1963-61 and 1965-66 to 1967-68

TOP