Since their on-boarding the commodity bourses on an experimental basis in FY25, there has been a spurt in the sales of assorted farm goods by the farmers producer organisations’ (FPOs) on these platforms.
This has helped these collectives to achieve price realisation for their members in FY26. On the NCDEX platform in 2025-26, 104 farmers collectives have sold over Rs 700 crore worth of agricultural commodities – cotton, cumin, castor, coriander, turmeric, cotton seed oil cake and guarseed.
According to agriculture ministry data, amongst these farmers‘ collectives, about 54 FPOs have sold commodities of more than Rs 1 crore on the commodity exchange platform last fiscal.
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Breaking the Mandi Monopoly
An agriculture ministry official said that selling through commodity bourse has led to formalisation of agricultural trade and provide farmers the option beyond trader driven purchase of commodities at the mandis. “On the commodity exchanges, FPOs get payment going into their bank accounts while ensuring aggregation and procurement from farmers members,” the official said.
The country’s largest commodity derivatives exchange – MCX – recently initiated onboarding of FPOs for participation in futures trade in agricultural commodities
Ganpatram Chaudhry, CEO, Mandor Kisan Farmer Producer Company, a Jodhpur, Rajasthan based farmers collective said that it has sold Rs 75 lakh worth of agri-commodities – jeera or cumin and castor seeds on NCDEX out of their total sales turnover of Rs 2.87 crore in FY26. This farmers owned group with 750 members is aiming to achieve Rs 3 crore business on the platform in the current fiscal.
Farmers’ groups have also stated that more commodities should be opened up for future trade while the Securities and Exchange Board of India has extended the suspension of trading in derivative contracts for seven agricultural commodities – paddy (non-basmati), wheat, chana, mustard seed and its derivatives, soybean and its derivatives, crude palm oil, and moong till March 31, 2027.
Scaling the Cooperative Model
In terms of overall business of farmers collectives, in FY26, 340 FPOs have crossed Rs 10 crore sales turnover, while over 1100 farmers collectives have reported sales exceeding Rs 1 crore. Cumulative turnover of these farmers’ collectives formed under central scheme since 2020 have crossed Rs 20,000 crore. Over 6.17 million small and marginal farmers have taken equity in these FPOs so far.
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Several collectives formed in the last six years through the central sector scheme have also carried out procurement of oilseeds, pulses and grain under minimum support price (MSP) to boost their businesses. Over 7000 FPOs across various states are now able to sell unique agricultural products including rice, pulses, millets, honey, mushrooms, spices, and value-added products on the government’s e-commerce platform — Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC).
The scheme for formation of 10,000 new FPOS was aimed at enhancing collective bargaining power of farmers through local aggregation and reducing cost of production through leveraging economies of scale, financial assistance up to Rs 18 lakh per FPO for a period of three years.
The scheme with a budgetary provision of Rs 6,865 crore was launched in February, 2020 while the financial support under the scheme will continue till the end of FY27.
These collectives were registered under several provisions such as the Companies Act, 2013 (farmer producer companies), cooperative societies Acts of the states or the multi-state cooperative society Act.
TOPICSFarmers IncomeThis article was first uploaded on May ten, twenty twenty-six, at fifty-seven minutes past seven in the evening.