[joshocar]

In other words, in volatile markets it creates predictability. Farmers use futures for selling their produce. If we didn't have futures farmers would have no way to plan for the next year until they sold everything at the end of the year, which is very impractical. Instead they lock in their revenue and upgrade, repair, buy or sell equipment based on that. Since water is now a volatile resource it makes sense to do the same with that and lock in part of their expenses.