NEW DELHI (April 05 2003) : India on Friday forecast a lower oilseeds andfood-grains output in 2002-03 after the country was hit by its worstdrought in 15 years following the failure of monsoon rains.

Overall rainfall during the June-September monsoon, crucial foragriculture, was about 18 percent below normal last year.

"Overall food-grain production in 2002-03 (July-June) is likely to be184.06 million tonnes compared to the record production of 212.02 milliontonnes achieved last year," the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement.

According to government estimates, food-grain production dropped 13.2percent because of widespread failure of the south-west monsoon and a weakpost-monsoon season.

The ministry said despite the steep fall in output, there was no cause forconcern as the country's food-grain stocks, currently estimated at morethan 40 million tonnes, were well above the buffer stock norms.

Oilseeds production suffered the most with the estimated output in theyear that began in November declining about 24 percent to 15.57 milliontonnes from 20.46 million in the previous year.

The ministry said the 2002-03 winter oilseeds output was estimated at 8.42million tonnes, down from 12.89 million, while summer oilseeds productionwould fall to 7.15 million tonnes from 7.57 million tonnes in the sameseason a year ago.

The winter oilseeds crop is sown in June-July and harvested in November.

Summer crops are sown in November-December and harvested in March-April.

The monsoon arrived in India on time in June, but July turned out to bethe driest month in a century.

Rainfall picked up in mid-August, but did not make up for the crop loss inJuly.

The rains are key to a good harvest, which boosts rural incomes and liftsconsumption in the mainly agricultural country, which gets 80 percent ofits rainfall during the monsoon season.

The ministry said the output of rapeseed/mustard, the main summer oilseedcrop, was expected to be 4.54 million tonnes compared with 5.04 million inthe summer of 2001-02.

Summer production of groundnut, which is grown mainly in the western andsouthern parts of the country, is likely to be slightly higher at 1.55million tonnes compared with 1.5 million tonnes.

The ministry said for the first time, the summer grains production,estimated at 94.61 million tonnes, had exceeded the winter output of 89.45million tonnes.-Reuters