India: Summer Sown Rice Area Up On Good Rains

According to latest data released by the Indian farm ministry, India's summer-sown rice, corn, and oilseed crop planting has been progressing well so far due to good rainfall in the last month.

India's monsoon rains were 20% above normal in the last month, boosting area under rice cultivation to 5.60 million hectares as of July 4, up 18.9% from 4.71 million hectares a year ago.

India's monsoon rains are a critical source of water for summer-sown crops with around 60% of the country's farmlands being rain-fed.