“So far as the official figures are concerned, the total cost of the famine of 1900 was as follows: 

British india

Direct relief                           $31,950,000
Loss of revenue                          16,200,000
Loans to farmers and native states       21,300,000

Native states

Relief expenditure and loss of revenue   22,500,000
-----------
Total                                   $91,950,000

“Some part of these loans and advances will eventually be repaid.  But it is not a new thing for the government of India to relieve its people in times of distress.  The frequent famines have been an enormous drain upon the resources of the empire.”

The following table shows the expenditures for famine relief by the imperial government of India during the last twenty-one years: 

Five years, 1881-86 $25,573,885
Five years, 1886-91 11,449,190
Five years, 1891-96 21,631,900
1896-1897 8,550,705
1897-1898 19,053,575
1898-1899 5,000,000
1899-1900 10,642,235
1900-1901 20,829,335
1901-1902 5,000,000
------------
Total (twenty-one years) $127,730,825

Among the principal items chargeable to famine relief, direct and indirect, are the wages paid dependent persons employed during famines in the construction of railways and irrigation works, which, during the last twenty-one years, have been as follows: 

Direct                  Construction
famine   Construction  of irrigation
relief.  of railways.       works. 
Five years, ’81-’86     $379,760    $9,113,165   $3,739,790
1886-1891                277,030       666,665    1,384,570
1891-1896                411,065    12,056,505      921,675
1896-1897              6,931,750                    156,100
1897-1898             17,752,025                    125,055
1898-1899                133,515     2,301,175       38,900
1899-1900             10,375,590                    119,650
1900-1901             20,626,150                    155,570
1901-1902              2,645,905                    353,465
-----------   -----------   ----------
Total (21 years)     $59,531,790   $24,137,610   $6,994,775

The chief remedies which the government has been endeavoring to apply are: 

1.  To extend the cultivated area by building irrigation works and scattering the people over territory that is not now occupied.