FPOs Leverage Futures to Improve Price Discovery

FUTURES TRADE IN agricultural commodities is making steady progress.

- SANDIP DAS

According to exchange data, in the first quarter of FY26, 702 farmer produce organisations (FPOs), representing over 1.16 million farmers, have traded on the NCDEX, in a host of commodities, namely cotton, cumin seeds, castor, coriander, turmeric, castor, cotton seed oil cake and gourd seeds.

An agriculture ministry official said that selling through the commodity bourse has led to the formalisation of agricultural trade, with payment going into the FPO bank accounts while ensuring aggregation and procurement from farmer members by collectives.

"By selling jeera or cumin and castor seeds on the commodity exchange, we have realised about 10% more prices than the prices we receive from selling commodities to traders," Ganpatram Chaudhry, CEO, Mandor Kisan Farmer Producer Company, a Rajasthan-based farmers' collective, told FE.