NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's weather office has forecast widespread rainfall in most regions in the next five days, calming fears a poor start to the monsoon would damage crops in the country where only 40 percent of the farmland is irrigated. Farm Minister Sharad Pawar said crop sowing had accelerated in the past week as rainfall increased after the worst start to the annual monsoon season in more than 80 years. In rice-growing regions, where farmers sow seeds in a nursery and shift the saplings to fields, transplantation had increased 76 percent in the past week, Pawar told reporters. "There has been substantial improvement in planting as rains have improved in the last one week," he said. Monsoon rains have picked up in the past week but the progress has been uneven, causing floods in some areas and drought in some districts which are not major crop producers. In the coastal state of Orissa, floods and heavy rains have killed 23 people, hit cargo handling at the Paradeep part, and slowed down rice sowing. "Sowing is completed only in 33 per cent of the total 3.8 million hectares," A.K. Padhee, Orissa agriculture director, told Reuters.The India Meteorological Department said heavy rains are expected in the next two days in Gujarat, a key cotton and oilseeds producer, and many places in Madhya Pradesh where soybean is being planted.
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