India demonetisation leads to dilemma for orange farmers
According to Pawan Aggarwal, an orange farmer, who has 1000 trees in his orchard in Agar district of Madhya Pradesh, the previous harvest could not be harvested as traders did not turn up. He wanted cash while the traders did not have cash to give. As a consequence, the ripened fruit is still on the trees and farmers now are looking at ways to destroy it.
"The previous crop should have been on the market right now, but the traders did not turn up as they did not have cash and we cannot give it without cash as we need money to invest in bamboos that are required to support the orange tree. Also money is now required to dispose of the wasted crop," Aggarwal said, while talking to India Today.
According to Javed Ansari, an orange trader, losses in terms of forsaken advances are to the tune of around 80 per cent. "I had given advances for the crop that was ready in the first week of November but had to forsake them as farmers wanted cash. I had no money, thanks to demonetisation and the little fruit that I have right now is of farmers who accepted cheques,"
The labour force in both the citrus and pineapple industry were affected as well. This year only 10 per cent of the specialised labour reached the orange farms from Maharashtra and pineapple farms also saw lower levels of employment as money has been tighter. Many were turned away as farmers and traders did not have cash to offer. The ones who are working have also not been paid anything.
source: indiatoday.intoday.in
