Chhatisgarh Farmers Crush Tomatoes Under Trucks As They Are Forced To Sell It For 50p Per Kg

Now that it has been over a month since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took the whole nation by surprise and declared currency notes of ₹500 and ₹1000 illegal tender, the consequences of his decision have started to surface and they are not painting a pretty picture.

Farmers in Raigarh district of Chhatisgarh decided to crush their produce of tomatoes under trucks, rather than selling them as they are getting a mere ₹50 for 100 kg. This sharp decline in prices is a result of currency demonetisation.

Angry farmers in Ramgarh dist in Chhattisgarh dumping tomato on highways. Getting market price of Rs 50/qntl only. pic.twitter.com/BA7fc7f1n2

— Devinder Sharma (@Devinder_Sharma) December 7, 2016

The demonetisation move has hit the rural economy very hard. Earlier, these tomatoes, grown across 4200 hectares used to feed 4000 farmers and their families. But now, the farmers are not even able to cut through their logistic costs.

As the revenues of businesses are getting reduced day by day, people are not spending as much as they were prior to demonetisation and credit is getting low. A combination of these factors has resulted in prices of major agricultural products going down and it is the farmers who are suffering the most.

A similar situation can be seen in Bihar where cauliflower is selling for ₹1-₹2 per kg, the same used to sell for ₹12 per kg before demonetisation. Also, a cabbage farmer in Maharashtra got ₹6000 for his entire acre of production, earlier he used to get ₹80,000 for the same.

A lot of onion farmers have to abandon their crops mid-way in the season as its cultivation is a cash and labour extensive process and the poor farmers do not have any money.

As 60% of the nation still depends upon agriculture for a living, the demonetisation plan has made life a living hell for farmers and people of the rural areas. With over a month of experiments with rules, over a hundred deaths in the nation and no respite in sight, demonetisation is not looking like a cakewalk anymore.

News Source: India Today, DNA