Cascading Misery

The domino-like latecomer effects of demonetisation, from farm to dinner table

- Lola Nayar

The BJP’s unprecedented success in the Uttar Pradesh election, coming a few months after PM Narendra Modi anounced demonetisation on November 8, 2016, was widely seen as proof of its popularity among the masses. Now, even as the Centre proposes to mark DeMo’s first anniversary as “anti-­black money day”, hundreds of farmers in Maharashtra plan to gather at Azad Maidan in Mumbai on November 8—to observe the day as a “barsi” or death anniversary. “There is a lingering effect of dem­onetisation on the rural economy,” says MP Raju Shetti, who leads the Swabhimani Paksha. “The agriculture commodities market is yet to stabilise. Farmers in Maharashtra are still not getting the right price for their produce.”

Shetti, who parted ways with the ruling NDA earlier this year, points out that INS­tead of the minimum support price (MSP), currently fixed at Rs 3,000 per quintal of soyabean, the farmers are getting only Rs 2,500. Similarly, in the case of maize, the farmers are getting only Rs 900 per quintal, though the MSP is Rs 1,400. Freshly harvested paddy is fetching Rs 1,300 per quintal (MSP: Rs 1,550), moong and urad (lentils) Rs 4,000 (MSP: Rs 5,000 and Rs 5,400, respectively).

This looks like a repeat of how it was in the weeks following the announcement of demonetisation last November, when farmers, particularly vegetable growers, were either forced to sell their harvest cheap in distress sales, or opted to dest­roy it on not being able to recover production costs. In Maharashtra alone, Shetti claims, around 400 farmers have committed suicide so far for reasons rel­ated to the impact of poor prices.