India sees bumper wheat, rice crops next year

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India expects its rice harvest to rise by two million tonnes and wheat output to increase by over one million tonnes next year, a top farm ministry official said on Tuesday.

The country already has more than adequate stocks of wheat, and is expected to meet its target to buy 27 million tonnes of rice this year, raising hopes that curbs on grain export will be eased.

"We are hopeful of meeting a target of 2 million tonnes of extra rice next year as there is a huge scope to increase productivity by popularizing hybrid seeds," Agriculture Commissioner N.B. Singh told Reuters in an interview.

In April, the government forecast a record wheat crop of 76.78 million tonnes and 95.68 million tonnes of rice this year.

(Reporting by Mayank Bhardwaj; Editing by Ranjit Gangadharan)