A report from the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare on July 19 showed that planting among most of India’s summer crops have declined since June 1, following a particularly dry monsoon season. Monsoon rains were down 20% below average in the week ending July 17, with the total rainfall since June 1 being down 16% below average. The total number of summer crop acreage in India was down 6.9% year-to-date.

Planted acres of rice, India’s key summer crop, were down 7.3% to 34.6 million acres, compared to the 37.3 million acres planted at this time in 2018. Soybean acres planted were at 19.8 million acres, down 11% from the 22.2 million acres planted at this time in 2018. Corn planting remained mostly unaffected compared to 2018 numbers.

Water reservoir levels were also down to 24% of their storage capacity, a 25% decline compared to 32% of their storage capacity recorded this time last year.

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