Modi's farm sops might mean little on the ground

Sops are a belated acceptance of the fact that demonetisation has impacted the farming sector hard

The big-bang announcements of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on New Year eve to alleviate the pain of demonetisation may fall short of easing the problems of India’s 140 million farming families because most of the measures do not address the difficulties arising out of the cash crunch.

Modi, while thanking the farming community for bringing in more areas under rabi crops and purchasing higher quantities of fertilisers despite the cash shortage, said the farmers who had taken loans for rabi crops from district cooperative banks (DCBs) and primary agriculture cooperative societies (PACS) would not have to pay interest on their