Monsoon boosts most crops, flood risk emerges

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Monsoon rains in key grain-producing states in northern India have brightened the outlook for rice and cotton although heavy showers have flooded some pockets, officials said on Wednesday.Rainfall in Punjab and Haryana was four to five times the average level in the past two days, making up for the dry spell in June and reducing India's monsoon shortfall since June 1 to 11 percent from 16 percent a week ago, data from the weather office showed.India's June-September monsoon rains, the main source of water for 60 percent of India's farms, began on a shaky note last month, delaying soybean sowing in central India and rice planting in the north, but rain-bearing winds advanced rapidly this month, ruling out significant damage to crops."Paddy sowing going on full swing in Punjab and Haryana," Vijay Sethia, president of All India Rice Exporters Association.He said the government's target to produce 100 million tonnes of rice in 2010/11 would be achieved.In central India, the main soybean region, planting has accelerated after rains revived this month."I expect 80 to 90 percent sowing to be over by next week," said A.S. Chandel, a soybean expert.Surender Paul, director at the regional office of the India Meteorological Department, said heavy rains would continue in the northern region for another 24 hours, and decrease after that.CROP PROGRESSGovernment officials said crop plating was progressing well."Monsoon showers are good for all kharif (summer-sown) crops. It has raised the prospect of bumper harvest and we believe that production targets set for all kharif crops will be achieved," said B.S. Duggal, additional director with the Haryana farm department.He said recent showers would help rice, cotton, coarse grains and lentils.Gurdial Singh, joint director with the Punjab farm department said rains had helped, but if crops remained submerged, they may be damaged.Floods submerge about 7.4 million hectares every year in India.A weather department official said there was some risk of floods in India this year."Possibility of a largescale drought has already been ruled out, but probability of occurrence of floods cannot be ruled out in areas receiving excess rains," said the official, who did not want to be identified.Several parts of the Ambala and Kurukshetra districts in Haryana, about 160 km (100 miles) north of Delhi were flooded, prompting civil authorities to officials to seek the help of the army for rescue.Ashok Malik, a revenue official in Haryana, said floods my damage the rice crop in a few thousand hectares.In Haryana, rice had been planted in about 500,000 hectares out of the target of 1.15 million hectares, while in Punjab, planting had been completed in 2 million hectares out of the target of 2.7 million hectares.(Writing by Himangshu Watts; Additional reporting by Surinderpal Singh in Chandigarh, Editing by Sue Thomas)
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