what do you mean by commercialisation of agriculture ?

on the eve of independence, Indian economy was subsistence economy. The britishers encouraged for the production of cash crops which made this economy comercialized economy. It means productions not only for the self consumption but also for sell in the market.

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Agriculture # Subject-Matter:

Till the end of the first half of the 19th century, the Indian village was essentially self-sufficient. It had hardly any contact with the world outside except for the occasional visits of the grain or cloth merchant who carried the surplus of one village to make good the deficiency of another. In such a village, production was dictated by its self-sufficient character.

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The village grew its own food, made its own implements and produced small-quantities of cotton and oil seeds?all for its own requirements. There were, however, two crops which could not be grown all over the country. These were cotton and Sugar-cane. Even in these, trade was severely limited in extent and restricted to a small area.

In such a self-sufficient community, which had only a few exchanges to make with the outside world, the need for money was rarely felt. Instead, grain was the standard of value which was used by the villagers for remunerating services or for effecting exchanges with each other.

However, from 1860 onwards, a series of developments took place which, on one side, broke the traditional isolation of the village, and, on the other, transformed the nature of agriculture from subsistence to commercial farming. The farmer, no longer, produced for his domestic consumption but ?a good proportion of land went under the plough for purposes of export?.

The development of transport and foreign trade led to the introduction of a variety of new crops such as tobacco, groundnuts and potatoes while, at a later stage, the Commercial requirements of the Company led it to encourage the cultivation of indigo, jute, tea and coffee.

Dependent as he became on foreign markets, the farmer now realised that it was more paying to live on the profits earned from his farm than on the products that he grew. This change in Indian agriculture is called the commercialisation of Agriculture.

A point worth noting is that all these crops, which now came in vogue, had been grown for a long time on small patches around every village. The change which now came about was not so much an increase in the total area under commercial crops. This was not possible because India had also to produce sufficient food grains for her increasing population.

The change which came about with commercialisation was in the direction of increasing localisation and specialisa?tion. The irrigated areas in Deccan took to the cultivation sugar-cane; cotton growing became localised in Berar, Jute in Bengal and wheat in the canal colonies of the Punjab.

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The British rule had pronounced and profound economic impact on India.

The various economic policies followed by the British led to the rapid transformation of India's economy into a colonial economy whose nature and structure were determined by needs of the British economy. One important aspect of British economic policy was commercialization of agriculture.

The commercialization of agriculture means that the agricultural crops and goods are produced by the peasants for sale in the market and not for their own consumption. Commercialization of agriculture in India began during the British rule. The commercialization of Indian Agriculture took place not to feed the industries of India because India was far behind in industrial development as compared to Britain, France, Belgium and many other European countries of eighteenth century.

The commercialization of Indian Agriculture was done primarily to feed the British industries that it was taken up and achieved only in cases-of those agricultural products which were either needed by the British industries or could fetch cash commercial gain to the British in the European or American market.

For example, several efforts were made to increase the production of cotton in India to provide raw and good quality cotton to the cotton-textile industries of Britain which were growing fast after the Industrial Revolution in Britain. Therefore, cotton growing area increase in India and its production increased manifold with gradual lapse of time. Indigo and more than that, tea and coffee plantation were encouraged in India because these could get commercial market abroad.

Most of the plantations for commercial crops were controlled by the English. Jute was another product that received attention of the English company because the jute made products got a ready market in America and Europe. The commercialization of India agriculture was initiated in India by the British through their direct and indirect policies and activities.

Firstly, the new land tenure system introduced in form of permanent settlement and Ryotwari Settlement had made agricultural land a freely exchangeable commodity.

The Permanent settlement by giving ownership right to the zamindars created a class of wealthy landlords; they could make use of this ownership right by sale or purchase of land. Further, the agriculture which had been way of life rather than a business enterprise now began to be practiced for sale in national and international market.

Moreover, crops like cotton, jute, sugarcane, ground nuts, tobacco etc. which had a high demand in the market were increasingly cultivated. The beginning of the plantation crops like Tea, coffee, rubber, indigo etc heralded a new era in agricultural practices in India. These were essentially meant for markets and thus commercialization of agriculture took to new heights with the expansion of the British rule.

A large number of factors encouraged and facilitated commercialization of Indian agriculture. The political unity established by the British and the resultant rise of the unified national market was an important factor. Further, the spread of money economy replaced the barter and agricultural goods became market items.

Further, the replacement of custom and tradition by competition and contract also led to the commercialization of Indian agriculture was also aided by the expansion of means of transportation and communication. The laying of railway lines and expansion of rail and road transport enabled the transportation of agricultural products from production centers to markets.

Another boosting factor for commercialization of agriculture in India was the gaining of speed of Industrial Revolution in England. This led to factor in commercialization as more and more agricultural goods were produced to satisfy the demand for raw materials by the British industries. The enlargement and expansion of international trade and the entry of British finance capital also belted commercialization of agriculture.

This was especially so in cotton as the civil war disrupted the supplies of cotton from America and thereby increased demand for Indian cotton. Further, the British policy of one way free trade also acted as sufficient encouraging factor for commercialization as the manufactured items in textile, jute etc could find free entry in Indian markets, where as the manufactured goods did not have similar free access to European markets.

The commercialisation of agriculture is a phenomenon where agriculture is governed by social consideration, i.e. certain crops began to be grown not for consumption in the village but for sale in national and even in the international market. The commercialisation of agriculture in India started during British rule. Revolutionary changes had occurred in agrarian property relations towards the end of the 18th century. The commercialisation of Indian agriculture started post-1813 when the industrial revolution in England gained pace. The commercialization of agriculture became prominent around 1860 A.D (during the American Civil War, which boosted the demand for cotton from India to Britain as America was not able to export cotton). The commercialization of Indian Agriculture took place not to feed the industries of India because India was far behind industrial development compared to Britain, France, Belgium and many other European countries of the eighteenth century. The commercialization of Indian Agriculture had been started to feed the British industries that it was taken up and achieved only in ca of those agricultural products which were either needed by the British industries or could fetch cash commercial gain to the British in the European or American market. For example, several efforts were made to increase the production of cotton in India to provide raw and good quality cotton to the cotton textile industries of Britain, which were growing fast after the Industrial Revolution in Britain. Therefore, the cotton-growing area increased in India and its production increased manifold with a gradual lapse of time. Indigo, tea and coffee plantations were encouraged in India because these could get commercial market abroad. Most of the plantations for commercial crops were controlled by the English. Jute was another product that received the attention of the English company because the jute made products got a ready market in America and Europe. Cash transactions evolve as the basis of exchange and largely replaced the barter system.