Small Ryots Are Worst Affected Due To Scarcity Of Small Change

By AS Joel Kumar

Deputy Bureau Chief

Sakshi TV

The day was November 8… late evening, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced withdrawal of big currency notes in the country. It was a bolt from the blue. At the stroke of midnight the announcement came into implementation. Nation was made to believe that everything was happening to curb black marketeers and to bring to task those who are in possession of black money.

Later, there were announcements from the centre that within 50 days everything will be fine. Even before people could digest the fact that Rs500 and Rs1000 would be a thing of the past, they were made to deposit the big notes in the banks. For whatever good reason the Centre took the extreme step, there is lot of criticism the way it is being implemented .

People of the country were pushed into crisis. Serpentine queues outside banks and ATMs never seem to end. People also dying while standing in the queues. From Kashmir to Kanyakumari people are in distress. In this scenario farmers are hit badly. Now one month has passed with demonetisation in vogue. A close at the farmers who bring their produce to rytu bazaars in Hyderabad brought to light their pathetic condition.

Rythu Bazaars in Hyderabad were established to help the famers sell their vegetables and fruits. Farmers instead of selling their produce to middlemen come to rythu bazaars to sell directly to people and get a better price. But now with demonetisation in place farmers are in deep trouble. Generally farmers from Medak, Rangareddy, Vikarabad, Medchal districts come to rythu bazaars in city during nights. Since early morning they start selling their fresh products.

Farmers who grow vegetables and fruits generally enjoy good returns, with growing demand for their produce in Hyderabad. This has been proved beyond doubt. This made the government to encourage these farmers. In fact, in the recent past there the production of vegetables and fruits has also gone up. But with demonetisation, the profits of these farmers have drastically come down.

Generally every farmer in the neighbouring district will produce four to five varieties of vegetables in his land. “I have five acres of land and I produce beans, tomatoes, potatoes and few leafy vegetables. But I m not able to sell them anymore. Despite lowering prices. Generally I sell one kg beans for Rs 40 but now I m selling for Rs 10 but very few takers”, says Erragadda rythu bazaar farmer Narsimha, who comes daily from Daulatabad in Medak district.

Farmers who come to rythu bazaars are all small time farmers. To grow vegetables they have to invest some amount and to pluck and transport them to rythu bazaars they have to spend money. But now due to shortage of currency notes and their products are not being taken. Finally they are wasted. “Sir in one acre I cultivated green chillies by investing Rs 20,000. After the crop to fill one bag of chillies that is 50 kg had to employ two people daily for Rs 400. Later had to transport from my village in Vikarabad district to Erragadda rythu bazaar. Now everybody gets big notes, how can I sell my green chilly. Already my beans has been spoiled and I had to throw in garbage”, says another farmer Narsimhulu.

Not only farmers who come to rythu bazaars are incurring losses. There are some self help groups which are running vegetable shops in rythu bazaars. Government allots them space to sell vegetables and they have to pay monthly rent.These groups are also not making any business.”Sir I had to struggle for three years to get this shop in Erragadda rythu bazaar. I bring vegetables from Bowenpally market n sell it here. I pay a rent of Rs 4000 every month. Just at a time my business was stabilising demonetisation put me to loss”, says Ghouse Khan of Vikarabad.

These days farmers are sitting idle in rythu bazaars. Some even slip into brief naps while waiting for customers to buy their vegetables. Few others are busy reading vernacular dailies trying to know what is the latest take of governments on the demonetisation. One farmer of Chevella district Anjaiah, who just finished his brief nap says “Sir there was a time we used to sell vegetables more than what was fixed on the notice board of bazaar. Now it has gone bad to worst. Today tomatoes are for sale for Rs 9 a kg. Even if we are selling three kgs of tomatoes for Rs 10 there are hardly any buyers”.

In a bid to ease the present crisis, Telangana government has introduced T-Seva service at all rythu bazaars. Here customers are given a choice to take tokens pricing Rs 5, Rs 10 , Rs 20. To get them customer has to go to the T-Seva counter at the entrance of bazaar and give his Aadhaar number. The executive present in the counter will enter your Aadhaar number in a small machine and will ask for the bank account from which the money can be deducted . After customer gives his thumb impression on the machine the said amount i.e. from Rs 100 to Rs 500 will be deducted and that much worth token are given to the customer. The customer will give those tokens to the farmers and will buy vegetables. Later, in the evening the farmers have to give those tokens to T-Seva executive, who will given them cash or will transfer them into farmers bank account. The customer can also return the tokens if they were not utilised and the same amount will be transferred to his bank account. Entire T-Seva is done under the aegis of Industrial Development Finance Corporation.

For T-Seva services there are only few takers. Farmers are yet to understand the cashless transaction. There are few farmers who are supporting the cashless transaction. But many are not in favour of it. “We get people who are daily wage labour to buy vegetables. They don’t have any bank account. Even for us it is tedious process. After selling the vegetables we have to spend some time to encash tokens. We come early in the morning daily would like to get back to our village soon but this process delays everything”, says Rajaiah, farmer from Medchal district .

There are farmers who come from neighbouring districts of Hyderabad and sell their vegetables and sell in other vegetable markets other than rythu bazaars. One such market is near Secretariat main bus stop. This bazaar was started exclusively for secretariat employees. However, local residents and passerbyers also take vegetables from this market. Daily there is a special RTC bus from Siddipet that brings farmers from six different villages to Secretariat bus stop. This bazaar was started five years ago. At that time it was a big hit with the employees. But after state bifurcation and departure of Andhra employees, the sales have come down. Even while these farmers are struggling to adjust to the situation, demonetisation has hit them badly.

“Sir, after the employees of secretariat were transferred to Vijayawada our sales have come down very badly. Now with the cancellation of big notes we are facing lot of problem. We do not have enough currency change to give to the customers” says Sujatha, women farmer from Tukkapuram village near Siddipet.

Earlier, the RTC bus that brings farmers to Secretariat made good business. Now it is very disappointing. “Earlier, the bus used to have 60 farmers daily with their produce. After bifurcation the number started dwindling . Now with demonetisation, the number has come to 20 farmers. Even we have frequent arguments regarding currency change in the bus. The situation is really disturbing”says Kanakaiah, RTC bus conductor while getting ready for the return journey .

The RTC bus starts daily from Siddipet at 12 noon picking up farmers en route and reaches Secretariat bus stop by 4 pm. The farmers have to sell their vegetables till 6 pm. Again the bus will start for return journey at 6.15 pm. Here even if the farmers fail to sell their vegetables they have to board the bus for return journey. Within minutes the entire market place near Secretariat bus stop will be empty.

Ramesh, farmer from Pathuri village, who just got into the bus and seated, says “Sir, in the past we used to come with our produce and return with money only. But now it is double fare to our luggage. We are unable to sell the vegetables completely. As we board with the luggage again, we have to take luggage charge. Don’t know when things will be in place with regard to currency”.

With frequent changes in climatic conditions, farmer has to bring out his produce. After that he has to struggle for a minimum support price. At a time when input costs are rising every year for small farmers, demonetisation has come to trouble them further. Till date there are small farmers and farm labour are far away from banking services. Without taking these farmers into consideration the Centre has cancelled big notes and made their lives miserable and pushed agriculture into crisis situation.