Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh on Wednesday said that better developed ‘futures markets’ for agricultural commodities will be significant for farmers as it could help them secure fair price for their products.
Mr. Singh, addressing on the eve of inauguration of 14th Commodity Futures Summit organised by Assocham here, said with a better developed futures market, farmers will face lower price risks. “This is good indication for the agriculture arena of the country that Assocham is taking interest to revitalise agricultural sector by adopting sophisticated techniques so as to improve production in agricultural sector,” said Mr. Singh.
He said the conference was a platform to exchange views on the topic of how commodity futures market can be conducive for price-related balance and risks.
Mr. Singh said most of Indian farmers are small and marginal and they do not enjoy specific capacity to transact the deals concerned, which is a serious problem.
“They deal with their business in low-benefiting markets and are victimized to exploitation owing to limited awareness about marketing. A better-developed futures markets for farmer meant for agricultural commodities attribute to great importance,” he added. He said the government was working towards developing National Agriculture Market (NAM) — a pan India electronic trade portal.
