Sowing of winter crops has been delayed in India due to a slow start to the monsoon season but oilseed and pulses planting is set to pick up after rains in the past few days, traders and officials said on Tuesday.
The area under winter crops, mainly rice, pulses and oilseeds, is lower than last year because June, the first month of the four-month monsoon season, was largely dry in key growing regions.
"We have about a week to complete sowing of oilseeds," a leading trade official said.
Winter crop sowing begins with the arrival of monsoon rains and harvesting starts in September.
Oilseed sowing had been completed on 11.9 million hectares (29.4 million acres) on July 22, down from 12.4 million hectares as of the same day last year, the government said in a statement.
Sowing of soybean, the season's main oilseed crop, has been higher so far at 6.3 million hectares compared with 5.9 million hectares last year.
But planting of groundnut, sunflower and sesame has been lower. "The sowing is continuing in different states and coverage is likely to increase," the statement said.
Traders said it was too early to talk about output because much will depend on rains in the coming months.
"August rains will be a crucial factor," said Rajesh Agrawal, chairman of Soybean Processors' Association of India.
India imports nearly half its annual edible oil consumption of almost 11 million tonnes. It buys palm oil from Malaysia and Indonesia and soyoil from Brazil and Argentina.
The weather department has forecast widespread rains over central, western and northern India in the coming days because of low pressure over the Bay of Bengal.
"Rainfall activity has been very good in the last two days and we expect more rains as the low pressure has moved inland," a senior official at the India Meteorological Department said.
India has received 100 percent of its average monsoon rainfall so far, with a 15 percent deficit in June wiped out after good showers this month.
But the rainfall in the central part of India, a major oilseed and rice growing region, was 39 percent below normal between June 1 and July 20, delaying sowing. "With rains during the last two days, it is a normal situation in most parts of the country," the weather official said.
Rice, the season's main grain crop, has been worst hit with sowing completed on only 14.3 million hectares, compared with 16.9 million hectares a year ago, with no time left for planting.
"Rice sowing is more or less complete, whatever has been sown has been sown," said Gagan Gulati, a leading trader.
Pulses have been planted on 5.7 million hectares against last year's 6.8 million hectares, the statement said. "Pulses crop had withered in many parts because of lack of rains, but it is being replanted," Gulati said.
The area under sugarcane has improved this year to 4.1 million hectares compared with 3.7 million hectares last year.
The government expects sugar output to rebound to around 17 million tonnes in the year to October 2006, from around 13 million tonnes this year.
India has imported around 1.8 million tonnes of raw sugar this year to meet a domestic supply shortfall.
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