* Weather office chief says situation is grim
* Heavy rains in parched soybean area, more rain likely
* Food prices up 10 pct annually
* here
By Ratnajyoti Dutta
NEW DELHI, Aug 13 (Reuters) - India's monsoon rains were 56 percent below normal over the past week, government data showed on Thursday, disappointing farmers for a third consecutive week as consumers felt the pinch of rapidly rising food prices.
Rainfall has improved in the central soybean-growing area, and is likely to be close to normal in the next few days, but sources in the India Meteorologican Department say total rainfall in August would now probably fall short of the reduced forecast of 90 percent of the average.
Weather officials said low rainfall so far, the worst in at least five years, would hit winter-sown crops such as rapeseed and wheat, while a trade body said edible oils imports by the world's top buyer would surge as rains will hit output of oilseeds, particularly groundnunt. [ID:nDEB000871]
The weak monsoon has already damaged the cane crop, and prospects of big purchases by the world's top sugar consumer has helped New York sugar rise to the highest level in nearly three decades.
A government source said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was likely to meet chief ministers of state governments on Monday to discuss the drought-like situation.
Erratic monsoon rains, which began with the driest June in 83 years before improving somewhat last month, are now 29 percent below normal in June 1-Aug 11, government sources said.
The weather office chief, Ajit Tyagi, said on ET Now television that the situation was grim and low rainfall may hurt winter-sown crops as well.
DIFFICULT YEAR
"Yes, it's a difficult year ... we have advised the states well in advance that there are some areas of concern particularly over northwest india and parts of Andhra Pradesh, maybe central India also," he said.
Northwest India is a key sugarcane area, while central India grows soybean. Andhra Pradesh cultivates rice and corn.
But Tyagi said he was not in a position to say if the country was suffering from a drought.
"We don't declare drought. We are meteorologists. Agriculture department does that," Tyagi told Reuters.
The government says India has grain stocks to last more than a year, and that it would act against hoarding and speculation, but analysts said they are worried about rising inflation in the months ahead.
India's wholesale price index fell 1.74 percent on Aug 1 from a year ago, but the "food articles index" was up 10 percent.
REPRIEVE FOR SOYBEANS
But the key soybean crop, which had received virtually no rainfall in the past three weeks, got a boost on Wednesday, when rainfall was up to four times of normal, the weather office said.
It said the region was likely to receive heavy rains in the next few days also, cheering traders who had feared that further delay in rains would reduce soybean yield by 5-7 percent.
Annual monsoon rains in India, where farmers depend on the June-September showers to irrigate 60 percent of their farmland, are likely to be 87 percent of the long-period average this year.
The weather office, which initially predicted normal rainfall for the season, has scaled down the forecast twice.
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