New Delhi

Ample monsoon rains have accelerated the planting of summer-sown rice in India, according to the latest farm ministry data, after a slow start to the sowing season that began in June.

Crop-nourishing monsoon rains picked up in July and August, allowing farmers to plant 32.8 million hectares (81 million acres) with rice by Friday, up 5.1 per cent from the same period last year.

An increase in rice planting in India, the world’s second-biggest producer of the grain, will ease concerns that supplies could be squeezed after New Delhi, in a surprise move late last month, ordered a halt to its largest rice export category. India’s decision to ban overseas shipments of non-basmati white rice pushed prices to multi-year highs, as trade and industry officials believe shipments by the world’s largest exporter of the grain could be halved.

Farmers typically start planting rice, corn, cotton, soybeans, sugarcane, peanuts and other crops from June 1, when crucial summer monsoon rains are expected to begin drenching the country where nearly half the farmland lacks irrigation. India’s monsoon rains were 5 per cent above average over June and July as a whole, but had fallen 10 per cent below normal in June before rebounding to 13 per cent above average the following month.

The weather office defines average, or normal, rainfall as between 96 per cent and 104 per cent of a 50-year average of 87 cm (35 inches) for the four-month season.