The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has revised upwards the cotton production estimates for India in 2010-11 crop year by one million bales to 26 million bales, on account of higher area and expectation of better yield. “India’s 2010-11 cotton production is forecast at 26 million bales, weighing 480 pounds each, up 4 per cent from last month, and up by 2.5 million or 11 per cent from last year,” USDA...

India, the world’s second-biggest rice grower, may have a record harvest this year as increased planting offset drought in the east of the country. Production may total 100 million tonnes in the year ending June 2011, compared with 89.3 million tonnes a year ago, said Vijay Setia, president of All India Rice Exporters’ Association. Output was a record 99.2 million tonnes in the year ended June 30, 2009, according to the...

India expects a strong rebound in farm output, which will substantially reduce food price inflation that has soared since last year when the country’s worst drought in 37 years hit crops, the agriculture minister said. This year’s June-September monsoon was 16% below normal last month, but rainfall has revived significantly, calming fears of shortages and higher prices. India also needs to ease tight controls on the sugar sector, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar...

In a dramatic development, the South-West Monsoon has advanced and covered almost the entire country in one swoop in just about 12 hours, barring some areas in Rajasthan. Even as of Sunday evening, the India Meteorological Department had predicted that the monsoon was likely to reach Delhi in a day or two and subsequently the other parts of north India in another two to three days only. But, by Monday morning, the...

Weather scientists today pinned their hopes for a surge in the monsoon’s advance over central and northern India on a feeble low pressure system over the northwestern Bay of Bengal and on statistics. India has received 16 per cent rainfall, which is below normal during the first month of the season, and 31 of the country’s 81 water reservoirs are filled to less than 50 per cent of the normal capacity. But...