How was cultivation of opium a difficult task.
Answers
Cultivation of opium was a difficult task because:
The Indian farmers were reluctant to grow opium, as they wanted to produce opium at a cheap rate and sell it at a high price to opium agents in Calcutta, who then shipped it to China. This difference between the buying and selling price was the government’s opium revenue. The prices given to the peasants were so low that by the early eighteenth century angry peasants began agitating for higher prices and refused to take advances. In regions around Benaras, cultivators began giving up opium cultivation. They produced sugarcane and potatoes instead. Many cultivators sold off their crop to traveling traders (pykars) who offered higher prices
→The crop had to be grown on the best land, on fields that lay near the villages and werewell manured.
→ This land was usually used for growing pulses. If opium was grown on fertile and wellmanured land then pulses would have to be grown on less fertile land and yield would notbe good in quality as well as quantity.
→ The cultivation of opium was difficult and time-consuming as the plants required lookingafter. As a consequence, the cultivators would not have time to look after their otherproduce.
→ The farmers had to pay the rent for their land to the landlords. This rent was very high.The cultivators owned no land.
→ Finally, the price the government paid for the opium produce was very low and wouldprovide the farmers with no profits.