29/12/2015 (Reuters) - India's farmers have pushed back planting of crops such as wheat and rapeseed, the main winter oilseed, raising fears of lower output and higher vegetable oil imports by the world's biggest buyer of the cooking ingredient.

Earlier this month, India cut its economic growth target to 7-7.5 percent for the fiscal year to March 2016 against its previous forecast of 8.1-8.5 percent at a time when sowing continues to lag normal progress.

Any further fall in farm output could hurt the South Asian nation's growth as agriculture makes up for about 15 percent of its $2.1 trillion economy and employs nearly 60 percent of its 1.2 billion people.

The first back-to-back drought in nearly three decades has drained the soil of precious moisture and the water level in reservoirs has receded, leading to a 3.7 percent fall in crop plantings so far in the season beginning Oct. 1, provisional data from the farm ministry showed.

Although India has reasonably robust stocks of wheat, any drop in rapeseed sowing and output will force New Delhi to buy more palm oil from Malaysia and Indonesia and soyoil from Brazil and Argentina.

India's vegetable oil imports in November rose 13 percent from a year ago to 1.34 million tonnes.

Asia's third largest economy needs an extra 1 million tonnes of vegetable oil every year due to its rising population.

The following figures are in million hectares. Some numbers have been rounded off.
   
 Crop                       2015/16     2014/15
 Wheat                      25.94       27.96
 Pulses                     12.60       12.48
 Cereals                     5.29        4.78
 Rapeseed & Mustard  5.98        6.40
 Other Oilseeds           0.99        1.04
 Rice                          1.22        1.36
 Total                         52.01       54.02