Monsoon rains have proved too heavy in Pakistan, damaging nearly 1m hectares of crops, but too light in neighbouring India, prompting a forecast of a 9m-tonne drop in production of summer-sown grains.

Floods in Pakistan which are reported to have killed more than 300 people, and displaced more than 500,000, caused "severe damage" to agriculture, as well as houses and roads, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said.

"About 986,000 hectares of standing crops, particularly paddy fields in low-lying areas, have been adversely affected," the FAO said, equivalent to some 11% of the area planted with the main summer, or kharif, crops.

These include cotton, sugar cane and rice, which are "an important source of foreign exchange earnings, and are cash crops for small farmers", the agency said.

Indeed, Pakistan is the world's fourth-ranked rice exporter, behind India, Thailand and Vietnam, and the fourth biggest producer of cotton for its sizeable textile industry, a significant employer and source of exports.

Furthermore, the floods have cast a cloud over the planting of the important wheat crop, which starts next month, by destroying inventories of fertilizer, machinery and seed.

India prospects

The crop losses contrast with a dent to India's summer crop prospects from weak monsoon rains, which have run 12% below average.

Ashish Bahuguna, the country's farm secretary, on Friday estimates at 120.27m tonnes the country's harvest of kharif grains, a fall of 9.0m tonnes year on year, thanks in part to a 3% drop in sowings.

Much of the production decline would be felt in rice output, seen falling 3.7m tonnes to 88.02m tonnes.

Corn output was pegged at 16.03m tonnes, down from 17.68m tonnes last year.

Among other crops, total oilseeds output was pegged at 19.7m tonnes, from 22.4m tonnes last year, while the cotton harvest was estimated at 34.6m 170-kilgramme bales (5.9m tonnes), down 5.5%.

Source - http://www.agrimoney.com/