Soybean: Output may rise 24%

KHARIF PROJECTIONS

Soybean output in the current season is likely to jump 24 per cent to 88.65 lakh tonnes compared with 71.496 lakh tonnes in the same season last year. The bumper crop is partly attributed to 13 per cent rise in soybean acreage to 87.114 lakh hectares.

Favourable monsoon and timely rains during the flowering season are also likely to improve the yield this year by 10 per cent to 1018 kgs a hectare compared with 927 kgs a hectare in the last kharif season.

In its latest survey,MP-based Soybean Processors' Association (SOPA) found satisfactory crop conditions in the state during the vegetative to reproductive phase in the areas which received good rains in June and July. The survey says that good spells of rains by the end of August and September may further boost crop prospects.

In Maharashtra, the crop condition was normal in the vegetative phase with fewer incidences pest attacks and occasional rains giving boost to the crop. In Rajasthan, however, moisture stress in the pre-and post-flowering phases affected the plant growth to some extent.

According to a latest research report by Kotak Commodity Service, China's soybean output this year is expected to fall due to drought conditions there. The country's soybean imports rose 1.7 per cent to 19.8 million tonnes during the first eight months of 2007. US exporters sold 120,000 tonnes of soybeans to China during the period.

Dry weather conditions in the southern hemisphere, where soybean cultivators such as Brazil and Argentina are located, would provide an upside risk to the prices, but any change in the weather could cap the rally.