Exports of Food from India

THE review of the trade of India for 1915-16 shows that 4 per cent of rice was grown in India as against 6 per cent in the previous year and 6 per cent of wheat as against 8, were exported during the year. These percentages are smaller than those of the previous years and may be taken to show that larger quantities of food grains were retained for internal consumption. But the fact remains that owing to high prices of wheat, at any rate, the people could not have consumed larger quantities of food during the years of war than the years before it. One question arising from this fact and also from the anxiety of the people to keep larger stocks of food, is that the country should always have enough food to last for a year and this should be determined from calculating what is the average requirement of one family.