Futures markets offer numerous advantages in the marketing of agricultural commodities, and in this context, the book examines the major factors and issues that determine the participation of India's farmers in the futures markets. These include the efficiency of the futures markets in price discovery, the convergence of spot and futures prices, the dissemination of spot price information, and the socio-economic and exchange-related issues affecting farmer participation. It also examines the factors affecting the demand and supply of participation, and the access to futures trading services. The purpose is to identify different factors that can enhance or constrain farmer participation in the futures markets, which may include market characteristics, institutional features, socio-economic issues, and behavioural aspects of farmer participation.

A number of organizations related to rural development, as well as farmer producer companies have sought to facilitate farmer participation in the forward/futures market through offering aggregation and other trading services, and the book also examines these efforts towards the exchange-traded derivative markets and the direct and indirect benefits that accrue. The book also studies the efficiency of futures markets in price discovery and price dissemination applying co-integration tests, and error correction and volatility models, using available data of wheat, rapeseed-mustard, cotton, guar seed, castor, cumin and coriander futures contracts traded in the largest agricultural commodity exchanges in India. Besides, case studies are used to examine and understand the institutional roles of aggregators in aggregation efforts towards the forward/futures market. This book covers several states and locations in India to enhance the representation and validity of the findings. It also examines representative farmer organizations which have obtained institutional membership in the forward or futures markets, and identifies areas of further research.

In the current scenario, the book would be of immense importance and relevance to governments, commodity exchanges/markets, aggregators, many private and development organizations, as well as interested researchers and students.

Autorentext
Kushankur Dey is Chairman and Assistant Professor of the Centre for Food and Agribusiness Management at the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow. He is a Fellow in Rural Management (equivalent to PhD) from the Institute of Rural Management, Anand and holds Postdoctoral Fellow of the Centre for Management in Agriculture, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. Before joining IIM Lucknow, he has served on the faculty of IIM Bodh Gaya and several private management institutions. He has also worked with Kotak Mahindra Bank, Rallis India and NCML in managerial capacities. He has more than 15 research papers to his credit, and some of them have appeared in different professional journals such as the Journal of Cleaner Production, Journal of Behavioural and Experimental Finance, Journal of Rural Studies, Economic and Political Weekly, Journal of Agribusiness in Developing and Emerging Economies, Int. J. of Trade and Global Markets, among others. He has more than 50 Op-Ed articles in the Hindu Business Line, Financial Express, and Business Standard, and many book chapters/ teaching cases to his credit.

Vasant P. Gandhi is former NABARD Chair Professor and currently Visiting Professor, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA). He holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University and has been Chairman of IIMA's Centre for Management in Agriculture, Board Member of IIMA, and Founder Chairman of IIMA's Postgraduate Programme in Agri-Business Management. He has worked with the World Bank and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in Washington, and has been Visiting/ Adjunct Professor at University of Sydney, James Cook University-Australia and University of South Australia. He has published numerous books and over 100 research papers on topics ranging from economics, markets, agribusiness, finance, food & agriculture policies, institutions, and technology in agriculture.

Kanish Debnath is Economics Faculty Member at the FLAME University Pune. He did his Doctoral (Fellow) Programme at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. He has been part of many research projects of government and private organizations. His research proposal was accepted for a grant of the 'NSE-IFMR Finance Foundation (IFF) Financial Deepening & Household Finance Research Initiative'. He was been Visiting Lecturer for Masters in Agribusiness Economics Programme at Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune. He has several publications.

Inhalt
Chapter 1: Introduction.- **Chapter 2: Development of India's Commodity Futures Markets.- Chapter 3: Literature on Farmers' Participation in Futures.- Chapter 4: Futures Market Efficiency in Price Discovery and Dissemination.- **Chapter 5: Field Survey, Observation and Farmer Profile.- Chapter 6: Institution in Aggregation Effort and Farmer Participation.- **Chapter 7: Constraints, Benefits and Scope of Farmer Participation.- **Chapter 8: Factors Affecting Farmers' Participation.- **Chapter 9:** Summary, Conclusion, and Policy Recommendations.