Rain deficit narrows in grain bowl areas

Monsoon deficit in drought-struck northwest Indian states narrowed after rains returned to the country’s biggest grain and sugar cane growing region after a two-week lull, a weather bureau official said.

Showers in the region were 40 per cent below average on August 16, down from 43 per cent on August 12, said S Kaur, director at India Meteorological Department in New Delhi. The shortfall in the region, which includes Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, was as high as 50 per cent on July 8.

The monsoon season, which brings about three-quarters of the nation’s annual rain, may be the driest in seven years, the weather bureau said last week, paring farm output in the world’s second largest producer of rice, wheat and sugar.

The revival may improve prospects for the cane crop to be harvested in October.

Sugar output may be 16-18 million tonnes in the year starting October 1, S L Jain, director general of the Indian Sugar Mills Association, said On Tuesday in Bangkok.

That’s more than 15 million-to-16 million tonnes forecast previously.

Inadequate rains in July 2008 reduced cane yields, thereby lowering the output by half and turning the South Asian country into a net importer for the first time since 2006.

Production may drop to 14.8 million tonnes in the year ending September 30, from 26.4 million tonnes, according to the association.

Sugar reached a 28-year high of 23.33 cents a pound in New York on August 12 on concern a smaller crop in India will prolong a global deficit for a second year.

Rice, the nation’s biggest monsoon-sown crop, has been the worst hit. The crop area has fallen 19 per cent from a year ago to 24.7 million hectares on August 12, the farm ministry said.

Bihar crop
In Bihar, which grows 5 per cent of the country’s food grain, farmers only planted 40 per cent of total area with rice and corn, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said in New Delhi On Tuesday.

The eastern state typically plants rice on 3.5 million hectares and corn to 350,000 hectares, he said.

Farmers in Karnataka couldn’t plant about 26 per cent of the planned 7.2 million hectare area as rains in the southern state since July 1 have been the lowest in 40 years, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa said in New Delhi On Tuesday.

Rains were 28 per cent below the long-period average for the country as a whole on August 16, compared with 29 per cent on August 12, weather bureau’s Kaur said On Tuesday.

The nation received 434.6 millimeters of rain, compared with an average 602.1 millimeters between 1941 and 1990, she said.

Monsoon has been active in northeast India, including the biggest tea growing states of Assam and West Bengal, in the past week, helping ease the region’s rain deficit to 32 per cent from 36 per cent on August 12, she said.

The shortfall in the central region, which includes the biggest soybean producing state of Madhya Pradesh, widened to 21 per cent from 19 per cent on August 12, while it was unchanged at 23 per cent for southern India, Kaur further said.