India monsoon improves, reservoirs depleted

By Ratnajyoti Dutta

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's monsoon rains were 8 percent below normal in early July, reviving after the driest June in 83 years, but water in the main reservoirs has more than halved, putting at risk even winter-sown oilseeds and wheat.

Rainfall was 29 percent below normal in the last week of June but improved in the following week, helping corn, soybean, sugarcane and rice crops in India, where 60 percent of farms depend on the monsoons.

Soybean sowing would be completed in a week in the main producing state of Madhya Pradesh, but last month's dry patch hit rice and oilseeds planting in some parts of south India, trade officials said.

"Follow-up rains, after the sowing gets over next week, will be crucial," said Rajesh Agrawal, spokesman of the Soybean Processors Assocation of India.

The monsoon's revival in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, India's top sugarcane producer, is expected to raise sugar content in the crop, but it needs regular rainfall in future.

Water levels in India's 81 main reservoirs more than halved to 16.003 billion cubic metres (bcm) from 37.301 bcm a year ago, according to government data for the week ending July 8.

The water level was 51.5 percent lower than the average in the past decade and a senior government scientist said that if rains in the months ahead are not enough to fill up reservoirs, irrigated winter crops such as wheat and rapeseed will be hit.

"If the reservoir level does not improve by end-August, then winter-sown crops would be affected, but it is too early to say anything," said A.K. Singh, deputy director general at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.