Oilseeds acreage rises 9%

Farmers in India, the world's second-biggest vegetable oil buyer, planted oilseed crops in a larger area in the 2007 monsoon sowing season compared with a year earlier, the government said.

Farmers sowed 9.51 million hectares (23.5 million acres) of monsoon oilseeds, including peanut and soybean, as of July 12. That's 8.8 percent more than the 8.74 million hectares planted last year, the farm ministry said in a statement in New Delhi today.

A bigger harvest of oilseeds may reduce the country's need to import palm and soybean oils from countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Brazil and Argentina. The June-September monsoon rainy season provides four-fifths of the nation's annual rains.

Sowing of the monsoon crop, which makes up 60 percent of India's total oilseed production, begins in June. Harvesting begins in mid-September and ends in November.

Farmers planted rice on 5.44 million hectares as of July 13, compared with 5.49 million hectares a year earlier, the ministry said. Cotton was planted on 6.9 million hectares, 19 percent more than in last year's monsoon season. The area under sugarcane cultivation fell 8 percent to 4.43 million hectares.

Lentils were planted on 4.01 million hectares so far, compared with 4.78 million hectares. Coarse cereals were sown on 8.03 million hectares compared with 8.62 million hectares a year earlier.

The water level in the country's 78 major reservoirs as of July 12 was 60.21 billion cubic meters, 33 percent higher than a year earlier. Farmers use water from reservoirs to irrigate 40 percent of the nation's farm land and to grow winter crops, including wheat and mustard. Winter crops, which account for half of India's food grain output and 40 percent of the oilseeds output, are sown between October and December and harvested between March and mid-April.