Rain boosts reservoirs, too late for farms

Fishermen row their boat on the waters of Srisailam reservoir in Hyderabad in this August 2, 2006 file photo.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Late monsoon revival boosted depleted hydropower and irrigation reservoirs and helped the soybean crop, but the overall farm outlook remained gloomy after three months of patchy rains and food prices are soaring.

Spot sugar prices jumped 4 percent to a record, buoyed by supply concerns, while government data showed wholesale price of the commodity has risen 37 percent in the year to Aug. 22, raising the food price index 14.5 percent.

Government sources said rainfall in the past seven days was 4 percent above average, the third straight week of near-normal rainfall.

Monsoon rains made a shaky start this year with the driest June in 83 years and unusually low rain in early August, making the seasonal rainfall 23 percent below average so far, which is the worst since 1972.

Last week's normal rains helped water levels in India's main reservoirs fill up to 45 percent of capacity, rising three percentage points in a week, which is the normal rate for the period.

But because of past dry spells, the water level was still short of the normal 60 percent of capacity, which would hurt winter irrigation and hydropower generation that accounts for a quarter of India's generation capacity of 150,000 megawatts.

Rainfall was 24 percent above average in the central soybean-producing region, helping the crop which had suffered after a three-week dry spell from the end of July, a weather office source said.

The Meteorological Department has forecast rains for the next 24 hours, and industry officials said the recent pick-up in rains would help crops in central India.

"The rains during last 48 hours would help improve yield," said A.S. Chandel, director of soybean development programme of the trade body Soybean Processors Association of India.

"Recent rains will help growth of late-sowing varieties and mitigate losses done to early-sown varieties," he said.

Traders and industry officials expect soybean output in India, the world's top edible oil buyer, could fall 9-19 percent this year due to the failed monsoon.

India had soybean crops on 9.49 million hectares as at Aug. 28, marginally lower than 9.52 million hectares a year ago.

India produced 9.9 million tonnes of soybean in 2008.