Delay planting on drought-affected farms of India and most warm winter in some areas over the past five years can impair production of canola and to reduce the content of oil, said farmers and traders, which raises the prospect of increasing imports of vegetable oil.

Prices for rapeseed, the main winter oilseed crop with the highest oil content, reached a record high in 2015, after the devastating drought in India during the last three decades and the off-season rains have lowered production.

This year's rapeseed production will fall and the harvest

will also contain less oil due to warm weather and lack of moisture, said farmers from the main state of production of rapeseed Madhya Pradesh.

Farmers reduced the area under rape by a third compared to last season.

Total canola production in India could fall by 7-8%, said traders in the main production state of Rajasthan rape.

Indian farmers planted rapeseed 6.28 million ha during the sowing campaign, which began October 1, 2015, or 3.2 percent lower than last year, according to the Ministry of agriculture of the country.

The temperature in the North and in Central India last month and in January was the highest for the last five years, which will affect the sowing of winter crop, experts said the private company Skymet meteorological forecasts.

The government says that it tries to help.

The Minister of agriculture announced that the Council of agricultural research India develops new seed varieties to cope with the impact of climate change on agricultural productivity. New Delhi will also launch the first major system of insurance against crop damage for farmers in the financial year beginning on 1 April.

Lower oil may offer force India, which consumes 18-19 million tonnes of edible oil annually, increase the purchase of cheaper vegetable oils by major countries, such as Malaysia and Indonesia.

In the marketing year ending October 2015, the third largest economy in Asia has imported a record volume of vegetable oil.

Warmer temperatures and reduced planting may also affect wheat production, although India has large reserves of grain.

Source: Thomson Reuters