Demonetisation likely to wipe out farmers' gains: NCML

The post-demonetisation cash crunch threatens to wipe out gains for farmers this year that saw a normal monsoon and raised hopes of record production of foodgrains, National Collateral Management Services (NCML) said today.
This year is likely to see a record foodgrain production of 270 million tonnes and also a significant rise in output of pulses. However, the recent cash crunch in the wake of demonetisation threatens to wipe out gains for farmers, NCML Managing Director and CEO Sanjay Kaul said in a release here.
Kaul today released 'India commodity year book 2017' brought out by NCML.
The south-west monsoon has been normal this year with only a few states such as Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and Meghalaya registering deficient rainfall, according to the year book.

This augurs well for agricultural production in both kharif (summer) as well as the coming rabi (winter) season, which would reverse the declining growth trend witnessed in the last two years, it said.
From the current data, it appears that foodgrain production would touch a record high of 270 mt, a seven per cent growth from the last year.

The increase in pulses production is expected to be close to 21 mt, over 26 per cent higher than the last year's output of 16.47 mt.
Rice production is targeted at 106 mt, and 24.5 mt for maize on the back of both increase in area as well as improvement in yield.

A normal monsoon has been associated with a good wheat harvest, which could touch 96 million tonne.
However, sugar output is estimated to have declined by 11 per cent to 25 mt, which is putting pressure on prices.
Similarly, cotton production has registered a decline in production to around 34 million bales against 38 million bales last year. The decline is primarily due to a 7 per cent lower area sowing, NCML stated.