Village Khokh (Patiala): Nek Singh Khokh fears he might wilt, just the way the saplings in his sprawling nursery might.
Ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled his demonetisation plan, scrapping big denomination currency to drain the economy of black money and counterfeits, Khokh has been struggling to pay labourers to tend to his saplings.
The owner of a nursery, some 25 km west of the Punjab town of Sirhind, Khokh sells seeds and saplings — from potatoes to onions, tomato and chilly — to farmers from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. His sales have, however, dropped over the past month since buyers are low on cash. Now, the saplings too are currently threatened for want of farm hands.
“Our business involves lot of cash rotation. The complications are mounting with every passing day. I have never seen such an uncertain scenario in the past 50 years since I took over my family business and started producing saplings,” says Khokh, 70.
His problem is he has money, but can’t access it. The day Modi made his announcement, Khokh had Rs2.8 lakh in high-value currency which he deposited in a bank. Since then, he has been struggling to withdraw cash for payment to the labourers.
He is in a labour intensive business and needs to pay anywhere between 20 and 60 workers daily. “These days, I am cash strapped, and there are other expenses to buy fertiliser, pesticides, diesel and equipment which I am unable to do,” Khokh laments.
Khokh’s inconveniences spell bigger trouble for farmers who buy seeds and saplings from him. Coming amid the sowing season for rabi crop, the scarcity of cash is estimated to have delayed sowing in at least one-third of Punjab’s 35 lakh hectares of crop land. Khokh says the sowing for vegetables scheduled to start in January could also be in jeopardy.
“The demonetisation has adversely impacted agricultural activities,” admits GS Kalkat, chairman of Punjab’s state farmers’ commission.
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