Soybean output may decline by over 17% as rains, water-logging damage crops

The country’s soybean output may decline by over 17 per cent this year on the back of heavy crop damage in major growing regions owing to flood-ravaged water logging.

Data by the Soybean Processors Association (SOPA) shows the overall soybean output at 9 million tonnes (mt) for the current harvesting season, as against the revised downward output estimate of 10.9 mt for the previous year. SOPA had earlier estimated the overall soybean output at 11.48 mt for the kharif harvesting season 2018.

“Farmers carried out soybean sowing aggressively in these states between June 25 and July 15. In some areas