India's summer crops planting is lagging after a slow monsoon.

Indian farmers are behind on planting summer crops such as 'rice, cotton, soybeans and corn, due to a'slow start of the monsoon, which has resulted in below-average rainfall.

India exports about 40% of the world's rice. The farmers of India begin planting summer crops between June and July, when the monsoon arrives. However, this year the rains arrived three days later in Kerala and their progress across the western farming regions was halted for two weeks.

It is too early to tell if the delayed sowing will have any impact on prices. The high stock of rice in the government warehouses should also cushion this impact, as they rose by 15% from last year to a new record high at the beginning of June.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare, farmers had planted summer-sown crop on 18,27?million acres as of 25th June. This is nearly 23% less than it was a year earlier. According to the data, rice was planted on 2.58 million ha, down from 3.44 million ha last year. The farmers have planted soybeans in 692,000 acres, down by 65% compared to a year earlier. Corn was planted in 1,57 million hectares and decreased by 16%. Cotton area decreased by 35%, to 2.97 millions hectares. Sugar cane increased 1.2% to 5.7 million acres.

Weather department data shows that the country has received 42% less rainfall than normal in the four months since the monsoon started on June 1. However, in some regions, the deficit can reach 92%.

Nitin Gupta is the deputy country head of Olam 'Agri India. An agricultural commodity trader. He said that rice planting would increase once "the monsoon gains strength in July". Nitin Gupta, deputy?country head at Olam?Agri India, an agricultural commodity trader, said rice planting was expected to increase "once the monsoon gains momentum in July".

The dealer said that a sustained lack of rain would impact yields and the amount sown.

India's rice exports are not its only major import. It is also the largest buyer of vegetable oils. The majority of India's needs come from palm oil purchased from Indonesia and Malaysia and from soyoil, sunflower oil, and other oils from Argentina, Brazil and Ukraine. (Reporting and editing by Barbara Lewis; Rajendra Jadhav)

(source: Reuters)