Agriculture ministry admits demonetisation hit farmers badly

New Delhi: Finally after two years, the Union agriculture ministry has admitted that the note ban hit farmers badly. As the government had made 86 per cent of existing currency illegal tender, the farmers who depend on cash for the purchase of seeds and fertilisers were drastically affected.

Despite criticism by the opposition, the Narendra Modi government was adamant that demonetisation was a necessary step to curb black money and a successful exercise. Now, the Union agriculture ministry itself has admitted that demonetisation badly affected the farmers. The Ministry of Agriculture presented a report in a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Ministry of Finance, in which it acknowledged that due to the lack of cash, millions of farmers were unable to purchase seeds and fertilisers ahead of the Rabi season.

The agriculture ministry report, which discusses the effects of demonetisation further stated that when demonetisation was implemented, the farmers were either selling their kharif yield or sowing rabi crops. Note ban rendered all the cash they had in hand useless, due to which the farmers were badly affected.