During this year’s monsoon season, heavy rainfall, flash floods and strong spring tides damaged property and infrastructure and swamped farmland in over 50 of the country’s 76 provinces. Some 2.5 million people were affected and 151 deaths were reported.
Harvesting of the 2002 main paddy crop started in October and will continue into January. Favourable growing conditions from June through August benefited early development of the crop, while floods in September and October caused only minor damage to the paddy. Provisionally, the outcome of the harvest is estimated at 20.0 million tonnes, 4 percent below the excellent crop of the previous year. The main crop accounts for about 75 percent of annual rice production. The remainder is produced mainly under irrigation, being planted in January-March and harvested in May-July. Assuming an about average output from the secondary crop, the total 2002/03 output of paddy is tentatively forecast at 25.8 million tonnes (17.1 million tonnes milled rice). Harvesting of coarse grains, mainly maize, is drawing to a close and an output of 4.1 million tonnes is expected. This is about 12 percent below 4.7 million tonnes produced in 2001, reflecting a decline in the area planted and lower yields as a result of dry conditions in some of the maize growing areas in the north.
Following bumper rice crops in recent years, exports have been at record levels. In 2002, shipments during the early months of the year were extremely encouraging, but recently, closures of new sales contracts have slowed down. Thus, the latest estimate of aggregate rice exports in 2002 has been lowered from the earlier forecast by 0.5 million tonnes and now stands at 7.0 million tonnes.