Demonetisation hits rural farmers hard

Old notes stillin circulation among merchants

In an attempt to overcome demonetisation challenges, rural merchants in the district are still depending on old currency notes as a last resort to pay farmers who are in need of liquid cash.

While a few are trying to run the show by partly releasing money to their regulars, majority are still clueless about tiding over the challenge in the changing circumstances. Binu Abraham, a rural farmer, reveals that old currency notes are still in use in many locations as a short-term arrangement to manage the crisis with the mutual consent of sellers and buyers.

“In emergency cases, farmers familiar with local traders accept old currency notes and get them exchanged at various banks later,” he adds.

George Thottathil, a farmer from Koodaranhi, says: “There are around 10 shops in the Koodaranhi and Koombara regions alone, but none of them makes full payment to their clients owing to shortage of currency notes. Small-scale rubber growers are the worst hit even as their well-off counterparts somehow handle the crisis by granting more time to local traders to clear arrears.” Mr. George also points out that local agriculturists are facing a huge crisis owing to the closure of some rural shops as a result of shortage of currency notes. “We can’t blame merchants alone as they have been depending on the conventional style of trading with liquid cash for decades,” he adds.

P. Saji, a rubber merchant from Thiruvambadi, says only a few farmers in his area know how to use credit and debit cards as they have been meeting daily expenses using liquid cash. “The sudden withdrawal of high-value currency notes has literally shaken them and doubled their turmoil,” he adds.

K. Johnson, a farmer and office-bearer of a newly formed farmer body at Koombara, says he is also among the several hundreds of frustrated settler farmers who are yet to get the money for the produce they have sold in the open market.

The experience is not any different for coconut farmers. They say the continuing reluctance of small- and large-scale traders to take the stock for more than a week is ultimately fuelling the whole crisis.