Commercialization of Agriculture Essay

intromissionThe British rule had pro noced and profound stinting impact on India. The various economic policies followed by the British lead to the rapid transformation of Indias economy into a colonial economy whose spirit and structure were determined by needs of the British economy. One important aspect of British economic policy was commercialization of culture. commercialization of floriculture which can be defined as a outgrowth where churls start producing primarily for sale in distant markets, rather than to meet their get under ones skin need for sustenance or to merchandise in local markets, (Roy, 2007) has taken adjust at different times in response to different stimuli.In the Indian context though a number of commercial crops such as cotton, tobacco and sugarcane were grown fairly extensively even before the advent of British rule (Habib, 1982), since prop up taxation had to be paid mostly in cash and the prices of these crops were much high at that tim e relative to the prices of dietgrains, however, commercialization of agriculture at that time corresponded only to the requirements of traditional receipts economy in which the main form of revenue payable happened to be an indistinguishable mix of tax, indemnity and rent (Raj, 1985).No doubt the need to pay revenue in cash was the initial stimulate force for the marketing of agricultural produce, the large surpluses so extracted from agriculture, without a flow of goods and services in the transposition direction in exchange, was basic wholey an impediment to further commercialization (Raj, 1985). Thus, commercialization of agriculture in pre-British outlet existed only in its embryonic form. In true sense, therefore, agriculture of India got a commercial orientation during the British rule.Industrialization in Europe and Commercialization of factory farm in IndiaThe commercialization of Indian Agriculture took place non to feed the industries of India because India was far behind in industrial development as compared to Britain, France, Belgium and many former(a) 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 theBritish industries or could let cash commercial gain to the British in the European or American market. For example, several efforts were do to growth the occupation of cotton in India to provide raw and good quality cotton to the cotton-textile industries of Britain which were ripening 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 orchard were encouraged in India because these could get commercial market abroad. It was beneficial to the British planters, traders and manu concomitantu rers, who were provided with opportunity to make Brobdingnagian profits by getting the commercialized agricultural products at, throw away prices. The commercialization of Indian agriculture also partly benefited Indian traders and bullion lenders who made huge fortunes by working as middlemen for the British. This attentiveness they acted as conduits delivering the products from peasants to the British company from where it was taken abroad.Though markets and trade in agricultural goods existed in quite an organized forms and on a large scale in the pre-British period but the market enlargement in the British period marked a qualitative and quantitative break. According to Tirthankar Roy, there were troika main qualitative changes.First, before the British rule, product markets were constrained and subject to imperfections, given multiplicity of weights and measures, transposed and risky transportation systems, and extensive use of barter. British rule and the railways weak ened these constraints. By doing so, it enab guide closer desegregation of planetary, regional and local markets. Second, from the time of industrial revolution, a new internationalist specialization began to emerge as a matter of trade. India specialized, in agricultural exports. Third, in turn, changes in the product market induced changes in defeat, labor, and credit markets (Roy, 2007). The American Civil War also indirectly encouraged commercialization of agriculture in India the British cotton lead was diverted to India. The demand of cotton was maintained even after the complaisant war ceased because of the rise of cotton textile industries in India.The commercialization of India agriculture was initiated in India by the British by dint of their direct and indirect policies and activities. Firstly, the new tear tenure system introduced in form of constant declaration and Ryotwari Settlement had made agricultural arrive a freely exchangeable commodity. The Permanen t settlement by giving forget power right to the zamindars created a class of wealthy landlords they could make use of this ownership right by sale or purchase of land. Secondly, 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.Thirdly, the semipolitical unity established by the British and the resulted in rise of the unified national market. Fourthly, the spread of bills economy replaced the barter and agricultural goods became market items and the replacement of custom and tradition by competition and contract. Finally, the British policy of one way free trade also acted as sufficient encouraging divisor 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.Impact of Commercialization on Indian AgricultureIt is interesting to note that th ough there is little controversy with ensure to the role of British in initiating and promoting the forces which led to the commercialization of Indian agriculture, however, the nature of commercialization and its impact on the Indian peasantry had been very controversial issue, both during and after the British rule. To the nationalists, it was not out of the free will of the cultivators commercialization of agriculture was coerce and artificial (Dutt, 1906). This was so because the high pitch of revenue demand in cash compelled the cultivators to trade in large portion of the produce of their fields keeping an insufficient stock for their own consumption. On the otherwise hand the colonial bureaucracy argued that it was the market force rather than the squelch of land revenue that was drawing the farmers into the business of production for the market. The commercial crops were more profitable and this economic incentive led them to produce for sale and export, thus making it possible for them to increase per capita income.Furthermore, the imperialist historiography and the colonial bureaucracy viewed commercialization ofagriculture, the expansion of trade in agricultural products and the rising agricultural prices as an indication of the growing successfulness of the peasantry. (Satyanarayana, 2005). On the other hand anti-imperialist historiography (both nationalist and radical Marxist) emphasizing the negative impact of commercialization of agriculture and the integration implied that agricultural production in India was to be determined by imperial preferences and needs (Bhatia, 1967). Moreover, other historians following the neo-classical economic theory or with anti-imperialistic orientations (Marxists and non Marxists) have extended their make to either of the two.The commercialization of agriculture was a forced and artificial process for the majority of Indian peasants. It was introduced under coercion of the British and not out of the incenti ve of peasantry at large. The peasantry went for cultivation of commercial crops under duress. Most importantly the life of the Indian peasant was tied to the highly fluctuating national and international market. He was no longer a deciding factor in agricultural practices. Further, by making agricultural land a tradable commodity, the peasant lost his security feeling. High land revenue demand forced him to take loan from the money lender at high interest rates. Failure to pay debt in time meant loss of land to the money lender at high interest rates. It led to land alienation and increase in the number of agricultural laborers whose conditions especially in plantation industry was pathetic.He had to pay the land revenue due to the British government in time. Moreover, he had to grow commercial crop on a specified tract of his land under the oppression of planters. Also, Indian money lenders advanced Cash advances to the farmers to knead the commercial crops and if the peasants fa iled to pay him back in time, the land of peasants came under ownership of moneylenders. The poor peasant was forced to sell his produce just after harvest at whatever prices he could get. This placed him at the money of the grain merchant, who was in a position to dictate terms and who purchased his produced at much little(prenominal) than the market price.It also resulted in reduced area under cultivation of food crops. The net result of this change was that Indian failed to produce even that much foodcrops which could provide even two fledge meals a day to its population. The misery was further enhanced became the population of India was increasing every year, fragmentation of land was taking place because of the increasing pressure on land and modern techniques of agricultural production were not introduced in India. While the upper class and British industries benefited-from it, the Indian peasants life was tiedto remote international market. It affected adversely the poor pe ople of India it became difficult for them to get even sufficient food. This becomes ample from the fact that ill 1880 India had a surplus of foodstuffs to the extent of five million tons and by 1945 it had a dearth of 10 million tons. George Byn records that from 1893-94 to 1945-46, the production of commercial crops increased by 85 percentage and that of food crops venomous by 7 percent. This had a devastating effect on the country economy and often took the configuration of famines.Bhatia believes that the earlier famines were localized, and it was only after 1860, during the British rule, that famine came to signify general shortage of foodgrains in the country. There were approximately 25 major famines spread through states such as Tamil Nadu in the south, and Bihar and Bengal in the east during the latter half of the 19th century. wide natural depression and Indian AgricultureA global economic depression broke out in 1929. However, the causes were more diverse and multi- pronged, with the decrease in cost and economic deflation of the post-war period organism one of the main reasons. This deflation was caused by excessive manufacturing activities during the First World War. As a result, huge stocks of goods were piled up without creation used. Wartime expenditure had reduced the countries of Europe to a state of atrocious debt (Manikumra, 2003). With the outbreak of the Second World War, India was required to provide the resources for financing the war expenditures, which amounted to n primordial 38 gazillion rupees from 194146.Government attached excessive importance in maintaining war related production, as a result of which a comprehensive system of supplying food to the urban areas at controlled prices was put in place. The pastoral poor were not viewed as being essential to the war effort and so the main force of war financing waspassed on to them.With the Great Depression, agricultural prices worldwide started falling earlier than industr ial prices. As a result, the manufacturing-agriculture terms of trade turned sharply against agriculture. A substantial redistribution took place from the mass of rural producers to urban classes. Thus the combination of the long term trend of decline in per head production of foodgrains, a rise in per head production of exportable and the effects of deteriorating terms of trade created a set of pre-famine conditions in the sense that any substantial shock to the economic system under these heap was almost certain to precipitate famine in the absence of countervailing intervention. Taxes were jacked up and deficit financing by printing money was resorted to and money supply is estimated to have raised five folds in the four eld from 1940.As a result there was a war boom and profit inflation. Rice price started an up spiral from the last quarter of 1941, doubled within a year and quadrupled within eighteen months.Also, the colonial government from the beginning strongly pushed exp ortable production by forcible cultivation of poppy in the early 19th century and export of opium to China, culminating in the infamous opium wars and indigo mutiny. With time overt force became less necessary as the pressure of revenue demand transmitted down to the peasant cultivators as the pressure of rental demand and in the case of landlords paying the revenue compelled peasants to grow more commercial crops to sell and to commercialize food production itself.Famine Indian Agriculture strained by commercialization and Great DepressionThe fall in prices had been higher in India compared to the rest of the world, the price of commodities manufactured in India flush dramatically compared to imports from the UnitedKingdom or somewhat other country in the world. The Great Depression had a terrible impact on the Indian farmer. While there was a steady, uninhibited increase in land rent, the value of the agricultural produce had come downto alarming levels. Therefore, having incurr ed heavy losses, the farmer was compelled to sell off gold and silver ornaments in his possession in order to pay the land rent and other taxes. Farmers who were cultivating food crops had earlier moved over to cash crop cultivation in large numbers to meet the demands of the mills in the United Kingdom. Now, they were crippled as they were unable to sell their products in India due to the high prices nor could they export the commodities to the United Kingdom which had recently adopted a antifertility policy prohibiting imports from India.An ex ante excess of investment over savings was converted to equality through forced savings extracted via food price inflation from the rural population. The consumption of food was then estimated at one and a half pound per individual and in 1945 it was 1 pound. Nearly thirty percent of the Indian population was estimated to be suffering from chronic malnutrition and under nutrition. Thus, the commercialization of agriculture in India by the B ritish was also one of the important causes of the impoverishment of the Indian people. This resulted in a combination of famines and epidemics claiming close to 2.7 to 3.1 million lives.The most cited example is that of Bengal Famines. Romesh Chunder Dutt argued as early as 1900, and present-day scholars such as Amartya Sen agree, that some historic famines were a product of both uneven rainfall and British economic and administrative policies, which since 1857 had led to the seizure and conversion of local farmland to foreign-owned plantations, restrictions on internal trade, heavy taxation of Indian citizens to support British. The Great Famine of 187678, in which 6.1 million to 10.3 million people died and the Indian famine of 18991900, in which 1.25 to 10 million people died were the most destructive famines.The Bengal Famine resulted in approximately 3 milliondeaths. generally the estimates are mingled with 1.5 and 4 million, considering death due to starvation, malnutritio n and disease, out of Bengals 60.3 million populations. Half of the victims would have died from disease after food became available in December 1943. Generally it is thought that there was skilful decrease in food production during that time which is coupled with continuing export of grain.However tally to Amartya Sen, there was no significant decrease in food production in 1943 (in fact food productionwas higher compared to 1941). The highest mortality was not in previously very poor groups, but among artisans and smallish traders whose income vanished when people spent all they had on food and did not employ cobblers, carpenters, etc. The famine also caused major economic and social disruption, ruining millions of families.ConclusionSince colonial times, opinions would seem to have been divided between optimists, for whom commercialization marked progress and a growing prosperity for all pessimists, for whom it marked regress into increase class stratification and mass pauper ization and skeptics who held that it made very little difference and that its impact was by and large absorbed by pre-existing structures of wealth accumulation and power on the land. However, capitalization in the 21 st century is said to create similar impact as colonial times, the only difference being that the later one was forced through oppressive policies, whereas the former would be market driven.The farmer in his choice of crops attached greater importance to market demand and price than o other factors. capitalism has mixed impacts on Indian agriculture. While it brings about liberalization and globalization that leads to trans-border availability of agricultural products all over the world, it breaks the economic self-sufficiency in India leading to greater dependency onmarket forces. exportation of food products is one of the major reasons for inflation in India, it reduces the availability of agricultural products in India, increasing the demand and thus escalating th e prices.Trade and liberalization has also made Indian agriculture vulnerable to global crisis. 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