Farmers and other stakeholders of the futures market have called for stricter regulation to ensure better participation and protection. They were voicing their concern at the meeting convened by the Forward Markets Commission (FMC) on Monday in Mumbai.
The participants at the meeting opined that protection from possible unscrupulous practices at the market place was a necessity.
They also demanded that the bill to amend the FCR Act, which will equip the regulator adequately to regulate various intermediaries such as exchange members, warehouses, assayers, depositories and aggregators, needs to be passed at the earliest.
BC Khatua, chairman, FMC has stated that FMC as regulator of the commodity futures market was committed to making available the benefits of this market to all the participants of the market, especially farmers. The commission, therefore, is in the process of identifying those organisations, which because of their rural connectivity may help making the benefits of futures markets reach the farmers directly or indirectly.
FMC would like to encourage the participation of such organisations in the futures market by removing bottlenecks, if any. FMC is also working towards programmes for farmers, traders and mandi officials for enabling them to interpret futures prices.
Khatua also pointed out that the various measures adopted by the commission would fructify at the grass root level and that in the coming years the market would see greater participation by farmers and other supply chain functionaries.