The main causes of India’s agricultural stagnation during the colonial period were :
(i) Land Revenue System—According to
zamindari system, the zamindars were j recognised as permanent owners of the land", j The profit accruing out of the agriculture sector i went to the zamindars instead of cultivators. However, both zamindars and colonial government did nothing to improve the condition of agriculture. Zamindars were to pay a fixed sum to the government as land revenue and they were absolutely free to extract as much from the tillers of the soil as they could.
(ii) Lacking Resources—Alongwith the land settlement system, low levels of technology, lack of irrigation facilities and negligible use of fertilisers, all added upto the bad condition of the farmers and contributed to the dismal level of agricultural productivity. Despite of some proposes made in irrigation India’s agriculture starved of investment in tracing flood control, drainage and disalimination of soil.
(iii) Commercialisation of Agriculture—Due to commercialisation of agriculture, there were, some evidences of a relatively higher yield of cash crops in certain areas of the country. But this could not help in improving the conditions of Indian farmers. Instead of producing food crops, now they were producing cash crops, which were ultimately being used by British Industries