In this work an attempt has been made to present a quantitative picture of the performance of the agriculture of Bengal during the period from 1920/21 to 1945/46. The main emphasis has been on the trends in crop output and its two determinants – acreage under cultivation and yield. In the light of the available data from independent sources, we have seen that the officially published data on acreage were mostly underestimated and those on yield overestimated, but at least in the case of the former the pattern was not uniform over the entire period. The acreage data have accordingly been revised and it has been contended that the trends estimated from the revised series can be expected to provide a more reliable picture of the agrarian economy of Bengal. The picture which thus emerges has four important features.

During the quarter century from 1920 there was hardly any improvement in yield at the aggregate level and only a marginal expansion of the acreage under cultivation. The obvious result was that there was a marked disparity between population growth and crop production. However, there were considerable differences in the trends of the two crop groups – food crops and cash crops. Thus, in the case of the former a small expansion of acreage was accompanied by a corresponding decline in yield. This was due mainly to the stagnation of the acreage and yield of winter rice. Acreage and yield of minor crops like wheat, barley and gram increased, but their combined weight was so small that this increase could hardly improve the aggregate picture in this group of crops.