Cash Crunch Brings India's Biggest Market To A Halt

Cash crunch brings India's biggest fruit and vegetable market to a halt. A shock move by the government to abolish the 500 and 1000 rupee bills has left traders at Azadpur, New Delhi with a lack of usable cash to buy and sell goods. The markets is a lifeline for farmers from the entire northern Indian belt.

Commission agent Raghubir Singh said "Money is neither coming or going. famers want small currency bills but we don't have them. We try deposit our big notes in banks, but there's such a rush that it's not possible to deposit money".

Many of India's 260 million farmers don't have bank accounts and depend on local lenders for funding for sowing season too. But a huge rush at banks to get new money and caps on withdrawal limits have left most traders without cash.

India's government on Thursday said it's trying to ease the crisis for farmers in order to ensure the current sowing season is not affected.