The country’s rice production is likely to dip to 85 million tonnes in the 2009 -10 season due to drought and floods, the International Grain Council (IGC) said in a report. Last year, the rice output in India was a record 99.15 million tonnes (MT).
Though production shortages are also seen in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Indonesia and Philippines, the sharp fall in output is expected to be in India, the report said.
“Late and uneven monsoon rains have greatly reduced main kharif crop area and with average yields expected to be lower, the total rice output in 2009-10 is down by 14 per cent year-on-year,” IGC said in its Grain Report.
Early this month, the government pegged expected rice output in the kharif season at 69.46 MT, down by over 15 MT from last season.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had recently said the rice output may decline by 16 million tonnes because of drought and floods.
India, the world’s second largest producer of rice after China, mostly harvests rice crop during the kharif season, which is already underway. The rest is harvested in the rabi season starting from February.
The London-based global grain body pointed out that the production fall in India might also bring down the world’s rice output by two per cent to 435.1 MT this year.
Rice output in neighbouring countries Bangladesh and Pakistan may decline by 2.6 per cent each to 30 MT and 6.2 MT, respectively in 2009-10, the report said.
