Markets frozen, farmers staring at distress sale in Madhya Pradesh

Korode (Bhopal): Farmers in Madhya Pradesh are facing the prospect of going for distress sale of their produces with operations in mandis virtually coming to a grinding halt — courtesy demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.

Business in the mandis, which give the peasants the right price of their produces through auctions, has declined by almost 90 per cent as traders are shying away from joining the bidding process to procure foodgrains from the farmers citing cash crunch.

“We had to close the mandi for a week till November 14 when the traders expressed their inability to pay the farmers in cash following the note ban. Later, a meeting was convened between the representatives of farmers and traders and it was decided the traders will pay them in cheques. However, majority of farmers showed little interest in receiving payment through cheques since they required cash urgently for standing rabi crops. The mandi are now hardly doing 10 per cent of its usual business,” an official of Karode mandi, Bhopal’s principal agriculture marketing yard, told this newspaper on Friday.

He said earlier 30 quintal soya bean, 50 quintal wheat, two quintal nuts, and 27 quintal corn could be auctioned in mandi on Friday. On a normal mid-November day, he said 3,000 quintals of foodgrains are auctioned per day in the mandi, he said, adding, “The mandi is losing Rs 1.5 lakh-Rs 2-lakh revenue each day”.

“We cannot accept cheques since it will take at least a week to get money from bank. Besides, quite a good number of farmers are yet to be connected to banking system. In this situation, farmers have been forced to look for alternative to sell their products”, Bhurelal (54), a farmer in Kakedia under Neelbad panchayat, on the outskirt of the city told this newspaper.

“Taking advantage of the situation, the middlemen have now started visiting our villages offering prices, which are not remunerative. We fear we have to go for distress sale of our produces if situation does not improve”, 65-year-old peasant in the village Bathu Singh said.