Farmers await rains after slow start to monsoon

(Reuters) - Pramod Patil's 40-acre field in Lasalgaon usually turns green around now with germinated soybean and corn seeds, but this year he has yet to begin planting because of scanty monsoon rains in Maharashtra. Like 27-year old Patil, millions of farmers are hoping rains will strengthen in the next two weeks so they can grow rice, soybean, cotton, pulses and some vegetables - summer crops that account for 7.5 percent of the country's economy. "Every day we look at the sky hoping to see some black rainfall clouds, but the sky is clear," says Patil, his fingers pointing skywards. "Soybean and onion prices are attractive, but what's the use if I fail to cultivate crops this year?" A poor monsoon season cuts exports, stokes food inflation and leads to lower demand for industries ranging from automobiles to consumer goods, while even a slow start can delay exports of some crops and increase the need for imports. Rainfall in June, the first month of the four-month monsoon season, was 43 percent below average across India, but more than 90 percent down in some states like Maharashtra and neighbouring Gujarat, top producers of cotton, soybean and sugar cane. One of the world's biggest producers and consumers of rice, corn, cooking oil, sugar and cotton, India relies heavily on the annual monsoon rains as nearly half of its farmland is rainfed. A delay in sowing will hit soymeal and cotton exports that normally pick up from October, and could force India to increase imports of edible oils, said Harish Galipelli, vice-president research at Inditrade Derivatives and Commodities. The poor start to the monsoon in the western region could affect production because only 35 percent of the area sown to crops is irrigated, Morgan Stanley Research said in a note. India's summer-sown crops covered just 13.1 million hectares (32.4 million acres) as on June 27, the farm ministry said, just over half of the level a year earlier.