NCDEX board panel on more farmer participation

The National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange Ltd (NCDEX) has formed a panel of four board members to advise on its ambitious plan to connect 50,000 farmers to reliable markets, which is the next step towards unlocking income opportunities for smallholder farmers, the exchange said in an announcement.

At present 16,000 farmers belonging to seven Farmer Producer Companies have hedged on the exchange and received 20 per cent higher realisations.

NCDEX has created a special committee to drive this path-breaking initiative. Members of the committee include Ashok Gulati, independent director, Rakesh Kapur, shareholder director, and Siddharth Pradhan, independent director.

With the support of partners such as IFFCO, NABARD, Tata Trust, Reliance Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, BASIX, Technoserve, Jeevika, Vrutti Livelihoods, CARE India, and Small Farmers Agri-business Consortium, NCDEX will be able to shift more than 50,000 of India's poorest farmers from subsistence farming to market-oriented agriculture by facilitating their access to correct price signals before planting begins, managing price risk at harvest time, and receiving other forms of support including post-harvest training on quality standards, financing and warehousing.

"NCDEX will enable some of the most marginalised farmers to access reliable markets for the first time. This will have a profound impact on food security and bring us closer to our national goal of doubling farmer incomes by 2020," said NCDEX Chairman Rabi Narayan Das.