Cash crunch: Farmers find comfort in cash-rich traders' woes

PUNE/KOLKATA/MEERUT: Having recently suffered the horror and humiliation of getting a throwaway price of 5 paise per kg for tomatoes that he tended and toiled over for months, Milind Darade can barely conceal his glee.

He is thrilled to see frowns on faces of cash-rich traders, whom he accuses of crookedly manipulating the market to ensure the reward of a farmer’s hard work goes to middlemen, and he thinks demonetisation of highvalue currency notes is his first tryst with justice. “This decision will affect those who do not pay tax, the traders who always try to cheat illiterate farmers. This is a watershed move and I support Modiji. But I support him only on this decision,” said Darade.

Other decisions like discouraging onion exports still rankle the farmer from Karanjgaon, Nashik. Farmers and the poor across the country share the sentiment, which is helping them deal with widespread hardship caused by the government’s decision to withdraw Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes from circulation and replace them with new currency. Almost no villager ET spoke to is opposing demonetisation and some people, like fishermen in Bengal who have lost business, are even saying that leaders opposing the move are “mad”.

Villagers are facing many hardships. Many are being forced to accept old currency notes by employers and contractors, while shopkeepers are demanding only the legal currency. In many cases, ad-hoc workers are without jobs as the businesses that employ them have scaled down operation dramatically.

But the anger against conspicuous consumption outweighs day-today problems created by the currency crunch. Sukhpal Singh, a 70-year-old farmer of Rohta village in Meerut, is suffering but thinks people will stop showing off big cars and he will be able to buy a house as property prices will fall.

"It’s difficult to buy homes as prices are inflated by property buyers. I have three sons and hope they will be able to buy property at good affordable rate. Further, people will stop showing off their money — while buying cars or spending on weddings,” he said.

Seeing the rich suffer thrills the rustic youth, but how long will the thrill last? Some are beginning to get impatient.

“A fortnight is enough to go through this pain. We are not being able to withdraw our hard-earned money to run our livelihood and also to carry on with harvesting work,” said Kaushik Dey, a farmer at Arambag in Bengal’s Hooghly district. “If nothing happens, then we will have to do something.” For many, implementation of demonetisation is the only problem.

Balasaheb Ghadge, a village panchayat worker who also runs a small kirana store in the tribal belt of Andar Maval in Pune, suffers due to the cash crunch. “I can't doubt the intentions of the prime minister, though he should have planned properly for the grass-root level problems and people living in remote areas,” said Ghadge.

But he also gets the thrill. “Till now, the poor were crying. Now we are smiling and the rich are crying. Let them suffer. We just hope that farmers get some benefit.”

Sunil Bhosale, a photographer from the village of Undawadi Supe in Pune district, which suffered four droughts in a row, said the decision will pinch the politicians, traders and businessmen. “I can't say if this will stop the issue of black money in future. But it will definitely hit them, who have accumulated huge black money,” he said.

Many farmers said they are used to living without quick cash because commission agents often delay payments for a long time. “The current cash situation has just exposed the misery of a farmer who rarely gets payments on time. Usually payments that are paid through commission agents prolong till next season,” said Mahendergrarh-based Kartar Singh, who recently sold his cotton produce. “Withdrawing money from banks has become timeconsuming, and often futile as banks have little cash,” he said.

“Prices of fruits and vegetables have come down as the cash crunch has affected consumers, vendors, commission agents as well as farmers,” he lamented.