The chief factor was the colonial subjugation of India under the British rule. India was reduced to the supplier of raw materials and food grains to Britain and importer of British manufactured goods. Many commercial crops like, cotton, jute, tea, tobacco were introduced to meet the demand in Britain.

Commercialization of agriculture in India began during the British rule. Revolutionary changes had occurred in the agrarian property relations towards the end of the 18th century. The commercialization of Indian agriculture started post 1813 when the industrial revolution in England gained pace.

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.

Commercialisation of agriculture : Commercialisation of agriculture means producing crops for sale in the market rather than for self consumption. Farmers were forced to cultivate commercial crops like indigo which was required by the textile industry in Britain for dyeing of the textile.

The main reason that British introduced commercial agriculture in India was that they wanted to purchase crops at low price from India and sell the same at higher prices in other countries. This way they easily expanded their trade in India. They asked peasants to grow these crops, and in return, they will get paid.

Commercialization of agriculture had a positive as well as a negative effect on the Indian peasants. It sure did improve the economy but there was a sharp reduction in agricultural production. Peasants were encouraged to grow crops like cotton, jute and tea for export trade. This became the reason of famine in India.

Commercialization of agriculture became prominent around 1860 A.D. This brought about a change from cultivation for home consumption to cultivation for the market. Further, increasing demand for some of the commercial crops in other foreign countries gave impetus to 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.

By commercialization of agriculture we mean production of agricultural crops for sale in the. market, rather than for family consumption. For marketization of agricultural products thus ‘surplus’ of production over consumption is. required.

Commercialization of agriculture refers to adopting agriculture not only as a source of sustenance but also a source of income with truly or professional way applying more technologies and methodologies.

Define commercialization of agriculture? Commercialization of agriculture refers to adopting agriculture not only as a source of sustenance but also a source of income with truly or professional way applying more technologies and methodologies.

Disadvantages of Commercialisation

• Under commercialisation, consumer’s welfare is not catered for.
• Many workers are usually laid off when industries are commercialised.
• Commercialisation leads to poor standard of living of the people due to shift in interest from pure service delivery to profit maximisation.

Most of the Indian people suffered miserably due to the British policy of commercialization of Indian agriculture. It resulted in reduced area under cultivation of food crops due to the substitution of commercial non-food grains in place of food grains.

By commercialization of agriculture we mean production of agricultural crops for sale in the market, rather than for family consumption. For marketization of agricultural products thus ‘surplus’ of production over consumption is required. But agriculture at that time was merely of the subsistence type.

The worst effect of commercialization was the oppression of Indian peasants at hands of European. This found expression in the famous Indigo revolt in 1859. Moreover, commercialization of Indian agriculture got manifested in series of famines which took a heavy toll of life.

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.