Cash crunch: Villagers turn to barter system

Villagers in some parts of Uttar Pradesh have gone back to the ancient barter system following the currency crisis due to last week’s demonetisation and are exchanging wheat, rice and vegetables for daily provisions at local shops. In some rural areas, even mobile phones are being recharged in return of grains and vegetables, reported Gaon Connection, a daily Hindi newspaper dedicated to rural coverage.

According to reports, farm labourers are being given vegetables, rice and wheat instead of their daily wages.

In rural areas, this is the period of sowing wheat in fields and farmers are said to be in distress because of the cash crunch. “Availability of seeds, labour and diesel demands cash which is invisible and hence to tide over some of the hardships, people have turned to the exchange of grains and vegetables. In some places, people are even exchanging domestic articles and clothes,” said Vikram Singh, a farmer from Baghpat.

Some farmers have offered workers sugarcanes in proportion to their  wages, which they have refused as they will have to sell it again to finally get money. 

Singh said that in his village Ahera, some well-off farmers own tube wells and borewell submersible pumps through which most of the irrigation of his village fields is done. “Tube well owners charge Rs 200 per irrigation, but now they are only being promised clearance of their dues after the coming crop season is over and farmers have money to pay them,” said Singh. Similarly, workers gathered at Simbhaoli Sugar Mills in Hapur district near Delhi said that sugarcane farmers who have hired them are mostly cashless and their daily wages of about Rs 250 a week are mostly due. “Some farmers have offered us sugarcanes in proportion to our wages but we have refused as we have to again sell that to them or to the mill contractor and all of them are short of cash,” said Bhagwandeen, a farm labourer.

Quddusi, reporter of a Hindi daily and villager from Asmoli in Sambhal district, said that many people in her village are exchanging mustard leaves, gram and vegetables to get their sim cards recharged for Rs 15-Rs 50 at a local vendor. “This vendor then supplies these items to the tehsil mandi where he manages to get them sold for cash or on the promise of getting cash after a week,” she said.