India Lowers Pulse Forecast

PANAMA - May 10/16 - SNS -- India's agriculture department lowered its 2015-16 pulse production forecast from 17.33 to 17.06 million metric tons (MT) in its third advance estimate for the current production cycle.

Total foodgrain output also slipped, slipping from 253.16 to 252.23 million MT. Modest gains in the estimated size of the country's wheat and corn crops were offset by reductions in rice and pulses. Even so, total foodgrain output is up slightly over last year's 252.02 million MT harvest as the drop in pulse production is more than offset by gains in cereal grain output.

The agriculture department said total production of rice during 2015-16 is estimated at 103.36 million MT, which is lower by 2.12 million MT than its production of 105.48 million MT during 2014-15. Production of wheat estimated at 94.04 million MT is higher by 7.51 million MT than the production of 86.53 million MT of wheat during 2014-15.

Total production of coarse cereals is estimated at 37.78 million MT which is lower by 5.08 million MT as compared to their production of 42.86 million MT during 2014-15. Total pulses production of 17.06 million MT during 2015-16 is marginally lower than the previous year’s production of 17.15 million MT. With a decline of 1.6 million MT over the previous year’s production’s total oilseeds production in the country during 2015-16 is estimated at 25.9 million MT.

Production of sugarcane estimated at 346.72 million tones, is lower by 15.61 million MT than its production during 2014-15. Production of Cotton estimated at 30.52 million bales (of 170 kg each) is also lower by 4.28 million bales than its production of 34.805 million bales during 2014-15. Production of jute is estimated at 9.92 million bales (of 180 kg each) which is lower by 0.70 million bales than its production of 10.62 million bales during 2014-15.