The Agra famine of 1837–1838 The famine is often referred to as the Agra famine because, just before it began, the North-Western Provinces, then the Ceded and Conquered Provinces, were to have become the Presidency of Agra; later, in 1904, the region again became the Agra Province of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh (U.P.) was a famine in the newly established North-Western Provinces (formerly Ceded and Conquered Provinces) of Company-ruled India that affected an area of 25000 sqmi and a population of 8 million people.