India sees good harvest, may sell wheat in local market

India expects a good harvest of rice, corn and soybean this year and may release 6 million tonnes of wheat into the local market to further ease prices, the farm minister said, raising hopes export curbs may be relaxed.

Sharad Pawar told reporters that India had seen adequate and well-distributed monsoon rains, adding government incentives encouraging farmers to use fertilisers would boost farm output.

India had to import wheat in each of the past two years, and this year it clamped down on rice and corn exports and cut import duties on edible oils as part of efforts to tame inflation that hit a 13-year high of 11.89 percent in end-June.

"We are hopeful of a rich harvest, especially of rice, maize and soybean," Pawar told a conference.

The weather office said in a statement monsoon rains were 6 percent above normal so far but the distribution was uneven. Rainfall was 77 percent above normal in the northwest but 34 percent below the long-term average in southern India.

Pawar said the government would take a decision on selling wheat in the domestic market by Thursday.