Tiêu đề Agricultural production 13th and 14th centuries.doc ✅

comprehended owing to the uncertainty of the units used, one gets a fairly good idea of the crops raised. Among food crops, he mentions, wheat, barley, paddy, millets juar, moth etc. arid pulses (mash, mung lentils, etc,). For cash crops, sugarcane, cotton, oil-seeds, sesamurn, linseed, etc. are referred to. One may perhaps legitimately assume that improved facilities of irrigation would have helped extend the area under rabi (winter) crops suck as Wheat, sugarcane etc. With the 'Islamic raiders' making of wine from sugarcane became widespread and a new rural industry emerged, at least around Delhi and in the Doab by the 14th century as is evident from Barani's account. Thakkur Pheru surprisingly omits the dye-crop (indigo) though its production is testified to by the fact that indigo was already an important item of export to Persia. It is recorded that the I1 Khanids tried to encourage indigo plantation in Persia to avoid dependence upon India for its supply. The probable use of lime-mortar in the indigo-vats by providing an improved surface should have helped the manufacture of dye. Although it is quite difficult to measure the production in terms of modern weights and measures but it has been estimated that the production of gram and cotton remained stable till the end of the 19 th century and that of Jaur and barley were much higher under the Sultans of Delhi than during the colonial period. As far as prices are concerned the crop, which needed artificial irrigation like wheat, sugarcane, were more highly valued than the crops that could largely do without it. Thus, the kharif crops, which were grown on mainly on rain and inundation, fetched very low prices. The hardier rabi crops, barley and gram, also were rated lower in respect of wheat and sugarcane. The land abundance of this period encouraged a more extensive system of agriculture, and so ensured a larger production of rain-grown crops, with a consequential relative restriction of crops needing higher inputs, especially in the form of artificial irrigation. The large area of waste land, including fallow, and forest, mean that there was little shortage of pasturage for cattle. Speaking of the two villages at the place where Firuz Shah established his city of Hisar, Atif mentions that one of them had 50 cattle pens, and the other 40 and no village was without a cattle-pen during this period. The large numbe of cattle might explain the fact that why the backs of the bullocks, and not bullock-carts, were the principal means for transporting grain in the villages. Moreover, the trade in dairy products such ghi or butter was highly profitable, thereby, making cattle rearing even more important.
From Ibn Battuta's account, we get information on fruit growing in the Delhi Sultanate. It appears that technique of 'grafting' was not known by peasants. Earlier grapes were grown only in the few places besides Delhi but Muhammad Tughluq's urging to peasants to improve cropping by shifting from wheat to sugarcane to grapes and dates and Feroz Tughluq's laying down of 1200 orchards in the vicinity of Delhi to grow seven varieties of grapes seems to have made them so abundant that, according to Afif, the prices of grapes fell to a rate of five times that of wheat. During the 14 th century, under MBT and Firuz Tughluq, there was a marked development of gardens. Firuz Tughluq is said to have built 1200 gardens in the neighbourhood and suburbs of Delhi, 80 on the Salora embankment, and 44 in Chitror. These gardens led to the improvement of fruits, especially in grapes. Thus, we are told that grape-wine used to come to Delhi from Meerut and Aligarh. Dholpur, Gwalior and Jodhpur were the other places which witnessed a marked improvement in fruit cultivation and gardening. Special attention was paid to the improvement of pomogrenates at Jodhpur. In fact, Sikander Lodi had declared that Persia could not produce pomogrenates which were better than the Jodhpur variety in flavor. However, fruits produced in these orchards were meant mainly for the towns, and for the tables of the wealthy. They, may, however, have produced some employment, and added to the avenues of the trade. However, the Indian peasants did not practise sericulture (rearing of silk-worm) at that time and no true silk was produced. Only wild and semi-wild silks,namely, tasar, eri and mugu were known. Whatever silk was used during the earlier periods of the Delhi Sultanate was obtained from Khotan or China. It was Ma Huan, the Chinese navigator in 1432, who makes the first reference to sericulture in Bengal; “Mulberry trees, wild mulberry tree, silk worms and cocoons, all these they have”. Agriculture was generally dependent upon natural irrigation, that is, rains and floods. Since cultivation was largely based on natural irrigation, the tendency was to grow mostly single, rain-watered kharif (autumn) crop and coarse grains more. Wells were probably the most major source of artificial irrigation in most areas. Muhammad Tughluq advanced loans to peasants for digging wells in order to extend cultivation. Masonry wells as well as brickless wells are described in the contemporary accounts of this period. In some localities water blocked up by