Farmers, who were said to be the worst affected due to the demonetisation drive, are going cashless atleast in Indore agricultural produce market committee (APMC) where farmers are now accepting other payment modes like cheques and RTGS (real time gross settlement).This was claimed by Atul Chaturvedi, president, The Solvent Extractors Association of India (SEA), who said that it was a very healthy development for the trade in general and has helped the industry to meet its commitments for export of soymeal."It is good to note that the Indore’s APMC has gone fully cashless and the arrival of soybean has significantly increased. Further it is good to know that APMCs in Maharashtra state will also have farmers on their committees, thus providing them opportunity for a more equitable share in decision making.”“In the long run this will help in sustaining the interest of the farmers in agriculture and oilseed crops," he said in a release issued by SEA on Thursday.Chaturvedi also said that as per government’s preliminary estimates, agricultural growth, in terms of Gross Value Added (GVA) at constant price, should be higher than the earlier two years, at 4.1 percent.This is due to record kharif harvest, aided by a much better monsoon than the previous two years. Kharif food grain production is projected to rise by 8.9 per cent from a decline of 3.2 per cent in 2015-16 with the country receiving 97 per cent of long period average rainfall during the south-west monsoon (June to September).For the country, the Rabi acreage on the whole is up 7 per cent compared to last year, with pulses, wheat and oilseeds gaining area. Acreage under oilseeds, as on 12 January 2017, has gone up to 81.47 lakh hectares from 75.06 hectares last year.But the southern states of our country viz. Karnataka, Tamil Nadu Telangana have been suffering drought due to lower south-west monsoon (June-September) as well as north-west monsoon, which has lowered the productivity of their crop and their farmers face a double whammy of lower prices and high costs.He said that on the international front, sunflower oil’s price in the international market is still ruling below that of soya oil due to a bumper sunflower seed crop and large crushing in the world market."This is a welcome window of opportunity for our country to import the oil preferred by the households for its golden yellow hue," Chaturvedi said in the release.