CURRENCY DEMONETISED TRANSACTIONS DONE IN CASH OF INDIA'S GDP IS DEPENDENT ON CASH ILL-PREPARED EM D OF T OS C ON

ing that he is unable to pay the labourers, who are still working in his fields. For fenugreek, Shaini spent R12,000 on seeds, R2,000 on medicine and pesticides, and R6,000 to prepare the farm for cultivation. Nine labourers work on his farm, each costing him R220 a day. To harvest his onehectare fenugreek, these labourers have to work at least 15 days. This means Shaini has to pay them R29,000. To transport the harvest to the Azadpur wholesale vegetable market in Delhi, he spends R2 per kg of fenugreek. The commission agent in the market takes R20 for every 50 kg of fenugreek. For his entire crop the investment comes to about R61,000, but due to the price dip he has earned just R36,000. This is almost a loss of 59 per cent. “Farmers have been punished for no mistake,” he says.

Balram Singh, vice-chancellor of Jodhpur Agriculture University, says, “Farmers, especially those cultivating vegetables, are facing a crisis. They are being exploited by everyone because they deal in perishable items.” Farmers were told to either take old notes or return empty-handed. “Exchanging the old notes is quite a challenging task in rural areas because the cash crisis there is worse than in urban areas,” Singh says.

By the time the government issued the new currency of 2,000 denomination, another problem unfolded. Ajit Singh, a farmer in Dichaon Kalan in Delhi who cultivates cauliflower, explains why the new currency notes are of no use to him. “Even if some buyers come to the market, we cannot give change without the R500 and R1,000 notes. So, with money also we end up doing no business,” he says. Bablu Chauhan of Sonipat says, “Bigger notes have helped bigger traders, while squeezing the small ones out of business.”

Demonetisation has affected everybody in the chain, points out Mukesh Pradhan, who trades in vegetables in Azadpur market. The informal moneylending that sustains the vegetable market has collapsed. Pradhan gives loans of R40-50 lakh to a few farmers when they begin sowing vegetables. This is on the condition that they will sell their products at the spot allotted to him in the market. For using this space he takes 7 per cent of the income from vegetable farmers. Usually, farmers return the money by November. However, not a single farmer has

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