INDIAN FAMINES - Institute for Social and Economic Change

150 ADMINISTIU.TIVE MANAGEMEi",T
powerful body in making large importations,
as has been done in the present famine.
No.3. The amount of food obtainable from a
harvest during a very bad season is a matter almost
entirely for local and contemporary judges
to make on the spot. In India there are few
uplands and lowlands where a wet or a dry
season would respectively produce an average
01' an unusually good crop, and more especially
is this the case with rice crops, for which the
fields must be deluged. However, even in India
there are a few districts which are capable,
within certain limits, of taking advantage of the
variability of the seasons; and although in these
exceptions the full amount of moisture required
is not supplied, yet it is supplemented to a considerable
extent by the natural position of the
class of district under notice. If we have no
uplands in India, we have lowlands along the
courses of the large rivers, and we have marshes
which, under a tropical sun, without a due
supply of water from the usual source, are soon
dried up. From high-water mark to highwater
mark on each bank of the large rivers
is known as" khadir" land, and the extent of