Nallavelli S.

In the colonial period, cultivation expanded for a variety of reasons. These are
(i) In Europe, food grains were needed to feed the growing urban population. The demand for wheat increased largely in the 19 th century.
(ii) The colonial rulers considered the expansion of cultivation as a sign of progress.
(iii) The British government directly encouraged the production of commercial crops, like jute, sugar, wheat and cotton to get more profit.
(iv) Europe needed raw materials for industrial production.
(v) In the early 19th century, the colonial state thought that forests were unproductive so forests had to be brought under cultivation and land could yield agricultural products and revenue. In this way the income of the state enhanced.
Thus, it can be concluded that expansion of cultivation is a sign of progress.

Swidden agriculture or shifting cultivation is a traditional agricultural practice where cultivators used to cut certain parts of the forest in rotation. Than they burn the trees and sow seeds in ashes after the monsoon rains.
It is practised in many parts of Asia, Africa and South America. It has many local names like ladding in South-East Asia, Milpa in Central America, Chitemene or tavy in Africa, Chena in Sri Lanka. In India dhya, penda, bewar, nevad, jhum, podu, khandad and kumri are some of the local terms for swidden agriculture.
Main features of shifting agriculture are
(i) The crop is harvested in October-November.
(ii) These crops are cultivated for couple of years and then they are left fallow for 12 to 18 years to allow the forest to grow back.
(iii) They use the forest in rotation for cropping and burn it after harvesting.
(iv) A mixture of crops is grown on the plots so they have diversified source of income and also replenish and add nutrients to the soil.
Shifting cultivation was banned by the Colonial Government. They thought it as harmful for the forests and also made it difficult for the government to collect taxes.

From the late 19th century, there was a dramatic expansion of wheat production in USA. The growing urban population and export market encouraged the farmers to produce more wheat. President Wilson encouraged the farmer by saying ‘Plant more wheat, wheat will win the war’.
The three causes for dramatic expansion of wheat production are
(i) Displacement of tribes and spread of railway By the early 20th century, the landscape of USA had transformed radically. White Americans had moved Westward and established control upto the West coast by displacing local tribes. They wanted to make the entire landscape into different agricultural belts. They also wanted to dominate the world market in agricultural produce.
After the 1860s, the setders swept into the Great plain across the Mississippi River. In subsequent decades the region became a major wheat producing area. The spread of railways made it easy to transport grain from the wheat producing region to other regions.
(ii) Growth in demand for foodgrain By the early 20th century, the demand became even higher and during the First World War the world market boomed. As Russian supplies of wheat were cut off, the USA had to feed Europe.
In 1910, about 45 million acres of land in the USA was under wheat production, within 1919 it expanded to 74 million acres.
(iii) Introduction of New Technology The introduction of new technology helped farmers in the Great plains to increase the production of wheat to meet the demand of world market.
In this way, the USA became the bread basket of the world.

The First World War and the Second World War had a major impact on the forests across the world. This impact is stated in the points below
(i) In India, the Forest Department cut trees freely to meet British war demands.
(ii) In Java, the Dutch followed ‘a scorched earth’ policy, just before the Japanese occupied the region. They destroyed sawmills and burnt off huge piles of giant teak logs so that they would not fall into Japanese hands.
(iii) The Japanese exploited the forests recklessly for their own war industries and forced forest dwellers to cut down forests.
(iv) Many villagers took this opportunity for the expansion of cultivation land by cutting down the forests.
(v) After the war, it was difficult for the Indonesian forest service to get back this land.
(vi) In India people needed more agricultural land for cultivation for its increasing population. Forest department desired to control the land and excluded people from it. These different interests, led to a conflict between them.