Sowing of summer-sown crops such as soyabean, cotton, corn and pulses has been delayed in India due to the slow progress of monsoon rains in central and western parts of the country, raising concerns over output, industry officials told Reuters.
Lower production of soyabean could force India to raise imports of edible oils such as palm oil and soyaoil, while a drop in cotton production could limit the world's biggest fibre producer's exports. Cotton sowing has been delayed in western states of Gujarat and Maharashtra, the country's top two producers of the fibre, as rainfall wasn't sufficient for sowing, said Atul Ganatra, president of the Cotton Association of India.
"But sowing can pick up once monsoon covers these parts," he said. Farmers have so far planted summer-sown crops on 11.6 million hectares, down 9.7 percent compared with the same period a year ago, according to the farm ministry's provisional data. Cotton sowing is down 16.3 percent, while soyabean planting has lagged by 59 percent during the period.
Monsoon rains hit the southern Indian state of Kerala a few days earlier than normal last month and delivered good rainfall in southern states, but from the second week of June it lost momentum. Usually monsoon covers entire India by mid-July. Monsoon rainfall was 9 percent lower than normal so far in June, but in some states such as Gujarat the rainfall deficit was as high as 93 percent, data compiled by the state-run India Meteorological Department (IMD) showed.
Monsoons deliver about 70 percent of India's annual rainfall and are the lifeblood of its $2.5 trillion economy, spurring farm output and boosting rural spending on items ranging from gold to cars, motorcycles and refrigerators.
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