Demonetisation has come at an inopportune time for the farming community as November is the month when khariff crop harvest picks up pace, coinciding with the sowing of rabi crop in Prakasam district.
Farm sector is among the worst-affected with farmers badly in need of cash to complete the harvest of khariff crops saved against odds in view of drought and start sowing of the winter crops like Bengal gram and tobacco.
Thanks to tight liquidity position, the price of vegetables and other crops are falling.
Cotton growers are in an unenvious position with the price of white gold crashing to about Rs. 4,100 per quintal in the market from about Rs. 5,600 per quintal in the pre-demonetisation period.
“Adding to our woes, the traders are asking us to accept payments in scrapped notes of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000,” says a group of cotton growers from Inkollur who have deferred plucking hoping that the cash crunch will ease in the next one week to 10 days.
They welcomed the Centre’s decision to allow scrapped notes for purchase of seed and fertilisers during the rabi season.
The monetary crisis has brought to the fore the resilience of the farming community in the post-demonetisation phase.
Farmers, who have been hitherto used to cash transactions mostly, are exploring all ways to stay afloat and undergo pain in the fond hope that better days will come.
Note shortage
“No doubt, we are facing severe cash crunch. We will bear it as the nation will be benefited in the long run as a result of weeding out of black money and counterfeit notes,” says a farmer leader, Jagarlamudi Anil Babu, from the rice-rich Karamchedu village. With only Rs. 2,000 notes made available in banks, there is a huge shortage of notes in Rs. 100 and Rs. 50 denomination needed to make payments to farm workers and purchase of farm inputs. “We have found a solution to the persistent problem by deferring payments to farm workers and paying partly in the form of rice,” he says.
“We have started paying the workers partly in the form of rice and stand guarantee to small loans extended to them by the local grocery shops to buy other essential commodities,” says Palaparthi Srinivasa Rao, a farmer from Nagulapupadu. The trust they enjoy with suppliers of farm inputs have ensured uninterrupted supply of pesticides to their farms on credit. “The fertiliser dealers also oblige us by accepting scrapped Rs. 500 and Rs.1,000 notes,” says another farmer, G.Veeraragavalu from Chadalavada. “With no access to institutional credit, tenant farmers, who are mainly depend upon private money lenders, faced difficulty in raising capital for the rabi crop,” says Kuvulu Rythu Sangam State secretary N. Ranga Rao.
The farmers needed about Rs. 3,200 crore in cash, particularly lower denomination of Rs. 50 and Rs. 100 notes to pay farm workers and complete the harvest of khariff crop in about 40 lakh hectares in the State without any hassles, according to YSRC farmers’ wing State president N.V.S. Nagi Reddy.
