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Recent monsoons help India's rice crop

Lee Chyen Yee in Beijing

Recent good rains should help India's rice output hit around 83-84 million tonnes for the July 2002-June 2003 year, slightly higher than US estimates, the head of a government research organisation said.

"Lately when the rains came in several areas, the crops picked up," Panjab Singh, director general of the Indian Council of agricultural research under the Ministry of Agriculture, said in an interview late on Sunday.

"We have been able to plant in certain areas and so the situation is not as bad as predicted in the beginning," Singh said on the sidelines of a global rice conference in Beijing.

Singh's figure was higher than the US Department of Agriculture's forecast in late August, which put India's rice output at 82 million tonnes due to a severe drought a few months ago. Last year, India reaped 91.6 million tonnes of rice.

"There will be some reduction in rice because in many areas, we haven't been able to sow the crop, particularly in Uttar Pradesh and plus some of Andhra Pradesh," Singh said.

The Agriculture Ministry said on Friday rice has been planted over 27.9 million hectares compared with 34.3 hectares in the corresponding period last year.

Monsoon revival welcomed

But a revival of monsoon rains in several rice-growing areas in the north and south, where farmers depend on rainfall rather than irrigation, have helped offset some negative impact from the earlier drought.

The annual June-September southwest monsoon is crucial for the farm sector, the key driver of the economy which employs close to 70 per cent of India's more than one billion people.

Singh also said the government would continue to provide financial support for exporters that has helped India overtake Vietnam as the second largest rice exporter. But he declined to give a forecast for the country's rice exports for this year.

Singh was attending the International Rice Congress in China where he met senior agricultural officials from major rice producers like Thailand and Vietnam, and key Asian consumers like Indonesia at a roundtable on Sunday.

During the roundtable, officials talked about a wide range of issues including ways to cut production costs and more effective use of land, Singh said.

But he said there were no discussions on Thailand's push for cooperation with three other major rice exporters -- Vietnam, India and Pakistan -- in efforts to control rice prices.

Thailand, the world's top rice exporter, said in August talks on cooperation had been delayed until October.

"It's difficult to have such as a rice pool. Rice is the most staple crop in Asia and it is grown in large areas," said Singh.

Singh said it would be tough to try and coordinate rice production and prices among countries in Asia, which grows and consumes 92 per cent of the world's rice, according to industry officials at the conference.

Thailand, India, Vietnam and Pakistan make up more than half of the world's rice exports, according to a recent forecast for 2002 from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation.

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