Vegetable farmers in western Uttar Pradesh bear the brunt of the ripple effects of demonetisation and the spluttering start to the GST regime.
Two successive bad years in terms of earnings on account of demonetisation and its persisting ripple effects, compounded by widespread apprehensions on how the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime will play out on the ground, have left farmers of Uttar Pradesh with an overwhelming sense of despair on the eve of the anniversary of demonetisation and amid the spluttering start of the GST regime.
As was the case during the period immediately following demonetisation in November 2016, vegetable farmers, particularly potato farmers, have been theworst hit by the ripple effects this year.
“In the period after the announcement of demonetisation, market agents and middlemen in the mand is refused to pick up our produce because of cash flow constraints. This year there is no evident cash flow problem but the government’s much-touted support systems to get over last year’s losses have been absolutely ineffective,” said Anil Kumar Awasthi, a potato farmer of Singauli village in the Makhanpur-Bilhaur region of Kanpur district.
“Thenet result is the same: the produce rotting in and outside cold storage. Once again, there is distress selling and throwing away,” he added.
Awasthi and four of his brothers, who collectively farm on some 17 acres (one acre is 0.4 hectare) partly owned and partly on lease, are feeding their potatoes to stray cows that have multiplied manifold in the village in recent months.
“What else can we do? At least they would get something to eat and this perhaps may deter them from barging into fields and houses,” he said.
This story is from the November 24, 2017 edition of FRONTLINE.
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This story is from the November 24, 2017 edition of FRONTLINE.
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