New Delhi, Jan 14 (UNI) Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday launched the country’s first Agri- commodity Options in Guar Seed by NCDEX (National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange) here in the presence of farmers and Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) from various states.

Stating that agriculture was a priority sector for Indian economy Mr Jaitley said the government was making efforts to ensure benefits of economic growth reaches all sections of society and particularly the farmers.

He said this unique hedging tool will allow farmers to mitigate their price risk along with taking advantage of upward price movement. “It is first-of-its-kind hedging tool which will prove to be a game changer for the farmers,” he said.

The Finance Minister also launched a mobile application on the occasion where farmers can learn more about agri-options and the commodities market. The instrument designed by NCDEX and approved by the SEBI, is expected to deepen trade in that commodity and will benefit farmers in reaping improved price realisations for their produce, with limited downside risk.

This launch is largely inspired by the fact that Guar Seed is one of the most liquid contracts on the NCDEX platform and a large number of informal trading Centres in some communities of Rajasthan are already involved in some form of informal options trading, a Finance Ministry statement said.

In order to promote awareness around this new agriculture hedging tool, the NCDEX has initiated a series of awareness programmes and trainings across the value chain.

National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange Limited (NCDEX) is an online multi-commodity exchange. The exchange offers future contracts for widest range of benchmark products across agriculture and precious and base metals.

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