NCDEX signs MOU with IRMA to create awareness about commodity trading in farmers and students
Mumbai: The National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange Ltd (NCDEX), Leading agriculture commodity Exchange of India and Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA), the premier training Institute in agri-business and rural management has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with special emphasis mentoring Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) and allied institutions. The mentoring is expected to occur through training sessions, handholding, and leadership development. High level delegations of NCDEX & IRMA held meeting to discuss scope of a joint certification programme on commodity markets.
IRMA is expected to support the training and development needs of market ecosystem stakeholders in order to spread awareness about commodity markets with an emphasis on derivative markets. A joint certification programme has been envisaged whereby IRMA’s students could learn about commodity markets besides providing training to agro sourcing professionals, skill upgrades of government officials, supportive awareness programmes, and research.
Speaking on this occasion Prof. Hitesh Bhatt, Director, IRMA said: “While organizational encouragement does exist for the setting up of FPOs, the latter need support for scale-up and sustainability purposes. This MoU will enable both parties to instill collaboration with meaningful outcomes.”
Vijay Kumar, MD & CEO, NCDEX said- “This MOU is an affirmation and recognition of our efforts to bring FPOs and farmers to the Exchange platform and shows that our sustained campaign has started giving results.” “This MOU will not just give quality learning to existing market participants, but also provide a strong platform that helps farming community and new talent to join the industry which will bring revolution in Indian agri ecosystem,” he added.
By conducting many capacity building meetings and training programs with farmer groups, the Exchange has helped farmers connect to regulated markets and imparted knowledge about new hedging tools like Futures and Options. As of January 2019, around 67800 farmers have traded on the NCDEX platform through 82 FPOs, and the FPO national footprint has now penetrated to 13 states. Around 2.5 lakhs farmers have registered on The Exchange through 202 FPOs. Such initiatives of the exchange helps in educating farmers about the importance of hedging their price risks in the futures market.
The Government of India, is making efforts to promote formal financial instruments and create a complete ecosystem of formal economy. Taking financial literacy to the remotest part of the country will help Indian citizens to understand the various facets of the formal economy. With the growth of commodities as an asset class, there is a huge opportunity available in the domains of warehousing, intermediaries, derivatives trading etc. This unique initiative will pave road for the growth of industry.