India's rice planting down 46% from last year over weak monsoon start

The area planted with cotton totalled 3.18 million hectares, down from 3.73 million hectares a year earlier

Indian farmers have planted 1.96 million hectares with summer-sown rice so far, farm ministry data showed on Friday, down 46% from last year mainly due to a weak start to the monsoon.

The outlook is better, however, as the monsoon has gathered steam. Summer rains have covered more than half of the country, with the rainfall deficit getting narrowed to 2% from 36%.

The planting has just started, and the area under rice could go up with a pick-up in monsoon rains, said B.V. Krishna Rao, president of the All India Rice Exporters Association.

Farmers generally start planting rice, corn, cotton, soybeans, sugarcane