While the government looks to find ways to improve the lot of the country's farmers, the NCDEX seems to have a solution. According to a survey conducted by AC Nielsen for NCDEX, farmers who have access to NCDEX terminals and therefore information about both prevailing and future price levels, tend to sell their produce for a higher price than those who don't have such access. The poll of farmers was done around mandis (Narrow Area Sample, or NAS) and it was found that a fourth of farmers living upto around 25 km from a mandi relied on the NCDEX terminals for information on prices of various crops (41 per cent still relied on the mandi and around 12 per cent relied on the arhatiya) "" these farmers also tracked likely future prices and so also held on to their crop for longer periods of time. In the case of those who lived more than 25 km away (Nielsen calls this the Wide Area Sample, or WAS), the mandi and the arhatiya were the prime source of price discovery (just 2 per cent relied on the dabba or the NCDEX computer-terminal) "" on average, these farmers realised a lower price for their crop and more of them sold it immediately after the harvest.
