Farmers in Vidarbha are being forced to incur terrible losses – by accepting lower prices, losing their perishable produce, or due to a fear of depositing cash payments in old notes in banks where they owe loan repayments.
Bandu Ghormade had no choice but to accept the old Rs 500 notes from the procurement agent and a lower price of Rs 200 less for every 40 kilo crate of his freshly harvested eggplants.
“If I didn’t, my produce would have gone to waste,” said the farmer in his late 40s. He grows carrots, spinach, eggplants and okra in Chicholi, about 50 kilometres from Nagpur. “Those who grow grains or cotton can hold on to their crop, I can’t.”
For years, Ghormade would load four quintals (400 kilos) of vegetables on his tempo every morning from October to December, and drive to Nagpur’s state-run Agriculture Produce Market Committee mandi, where licensed traders buy farmers’ produce through agents.
Since November 8, when high-value notes were demonetised, Ghormade has been selling at a loss at the mandi every day, while his son is going to the nearest bank, five kilometres away, to stand in queue and deposit the notes.
Still, Ghormade is earning something because he is ready to accept the old notes. Some farmers, also with perishable produce, are not – and they are making terrible losses.
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