Mumbai, May 25 - India's annual monsoon rains have advanced to major rice growing regions across the country, the weather department said on Monday, boosting output and acreage prospects for the country's most harvested food grain.
The rains, crucial to India's economy, reached the eastern state of West Bengal, the country's biggest rice producer, on Monday, it said in a statement.
The four-month monsoon rains also spread to the eastern state of Orissa and Tamil Nadu, the fifth and sixth biggest producers of rice.
Monsoon, which reached the south-western state of Kerala on May 23, ahead of scheduled June 1 raising hopes of an early sowing for major crops.
Early onset of monsoon, and forecasts of nearly normal rains, will help raise farm output, which may encourage the new government to lift curbs on rice exports, and allow futures trade in rice, which was banned amid fears of scarcity.
Last week B.P. Yadav, spokesman for India Meteorological Department, told Reuters, "The early onset is always a good news."
India's June-September monsoon rains are a major influence on the farm-dependent economy as two-thirds of Indians live in villages.
India's summer-sown crops accounted for 52 percent of the estimated food crop output of 229.85 million tonnes in the year to June 2009, the farm ministry said this month.
Rice accounts for nearly three-quarters of the harvest from summer-sown crops.
India's newly appointed farm minister Sharad Pawar on Monday said the rice purchases by government agencies in current season have increased to 29.1 million tonnes from 24.4 million tonnes in the comparable period last year.
He further said India will review stock situation before easing export curbs.
In April, the India Meteorological Department said this year's monsoon rains were likely to be 96 percent of the long-term average.
Though the early onset of monsoon is good for the economy, the distribution of rains in the subsequent four months is important for farm output.