The Times of India

The farmers were already reeling under a crisis as the government was yet to clear the arrears due to them for procuring paddy. Adding to their woes, cooperative banks and other nationalized banks have now stopped disbursing loans.

The Hindu Business Line

For the cash-dependent Indian farm sector that was hoping for a recovery on near normal monsoon this year after two consecutive droughts, the demonetisation and a resultant currency crunch, which coincided with the kharif harvest season, has dealt a major blow, aggravating the hardships of not only farmers, but also of the labourers dependent on the sector for their livelihoods.

Business Standard

In Haryana, farmers have so far completed sowing of wheat and other crops over 29.32 lakh hectares in rabi season 2016-17, surpassing 29.31 lakh hectares covered in the corresponding period last year. Stating this here today, a spokesman of the Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Department said that “demonetisation has not adversely impacted sowing in the state.”

The Financial Express

With the winter season setting in gradually across northern India, wheat-sowing activity across key growing states is expected to gather pace and be completed by the end of this month. According to data released last week by the agriculture ministry, though wheat sowing has been so far been lower by around 8% from the normal sowing area, agriculture ministry officials said that eventually, total sowing will be close to normal sowing areas this year.

The Economic Times

The government has scrapped the 10 per cent import duty on wheat amid rising domestic prices and concerns of a dip in buffer stocks following two consecutive drought years. Traders anticipate a pickup in imports of the commodity and global prices to rise 3-5 per cent despite a bumper harvest in Australia, Ukraine and Russia. However, with prices staying firm in India, imports will still be cheaper and help lower prices in the domestic market, they said.

The Times of India

State agriculture department will impart training to its officials on procedures related to setting up of industries for the effective implementation of memorandum of understanding (MoUs) during the global Rajasthan agri-tech meet (GRAM). With no experience and knowledge of facilitating industries, officials attached with each MoU were facing issues on its execution. To overcome this shortcoming, these officials will now undergo training modules, understanding the rules and regulations of setting up plants.

The Hindu

With the weather department predicting a warmer winter this season across the country, agriculture experts are wary of wheat crop’s yield dipping in the ongoing rabi season, even as they believe that right now there is nothing to be alarmed. Wheat sowing is in full swing across most of northern and central States of the country, including Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Till last week, wheat had been sown in 173.93 lakh hectares during the ongoing rabi season as against 152.56 lakh hectares in the corresponding period of last year.

The Indian Express

To improve the supply of wheat, the government on Thursday removed a 10 per cent import duty on the grain. Earlier, in September, the wheat import duty was brought down to 10 per cent from 20 per cent. According to sources, the move is aimed at ensuring that retail wheat prices, which have seen an increase in the last few weeks, are kept under check till the new crop arrives in the market from April 1, 2017.

The Indian Express

Punjab farmers have so far got only about Rs 19,350 crore, out of the Rs 24,915 crore that was due for the 16.50 million tonnes paddy they had supplied to government agencies in the recent kharif procurement season at the minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 1,510 per quintal.

The Wire

Almost a month after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the scrapping of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes, the socio-economic fabric of Bundelkhand – one of the poorest regions in central India comprising parts of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh – is slowly crumbling. The shortage of cash in banks, a parallel black economy, an illegal cash-barter system and deepening feudal repression have intensified the woes of this largely agricultural belt, which is already reeling under the impact of three consecutive droughts and then a flood this past monsoon.

First Post

One sector of the economy which has been bearing the brunt of demonetisation is agriculture. This piece in Mint says cash is the primary mode of transaction in agriculture sector with formal financing in many parts, especially Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Kerala coming significantly from cooperative banks. These have been barred from exchange-deposit of demonetised currency. Agriculture is impacted through the input-output channels as well as price and output feedback effects. Sale, transport, marketing and distribution of ready produce to wholesale centres or mandis, is dominantly cash-dependent. Disruptions, breaks in the supply chains feedback to farmers as sales fall, increased wastage of perishables, lower revenues that show up as trade dues instead of cash ...