Aug. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Rice exports from Vietnam, the second-largest shipper, may rise to a record 6 million metric tons in 2009 aided by lower prices, narrowing the gap with bigger rival Thailand, according to U.S. forecasts. The price of Vietnam’s 5 percent broken-grain variety fell to about $398 per ton this month, $163 a ton cheaper than Thailand’s competing grade, the U.S. Agriculture Department said. That compares with Vietnam’s price in April of $460 a ton, which was $112 less than Thailand’s, it said.

NEW DELHI: The Centre aims to raise planting of winter-sown crops and improve irrigation to make up for the damage to farms and to try to counter rising food prices after poor monsoon rains hurt crops such as rice and sugarcane. Monsoon rains have been 29% below average this year, raising prospects of bigger sugar imports as well as triggering a sharp rise in food prices and hitting rural incomes. “Every effort has to be taken to contain and moderate this price increase,” food and agriculture minister Sharad Pawar told a conference of chief ministers in the Capital on Monday.

Rice growing in the Mekong Delta will need to be reduced as the region is likely to face a water shortage in the next decade, leading agriculturalists have warned. Professor Vo Tong Xuan, one of Vietnam’s leading agricultural experts, said local rice farmers do not know how to use water economically and each hectare of farmland now consumes more than 20,000 cubic meters of water. That means the 3.8 million hectares of Mekong Delta rice needs more than 76 million cubic meters of water per year, or one sixth of the region’s annual intake from the Mekong River, Xuan said.

Ecuador began Friday to export 30,000 tons of rice and 20,000 tons of corn to Venezuela, Ecuadorian Agriculture Minister Ramon Espinel said. The first load of 8,000 tons of rice was sent to Venezuela, in order to alleviate the pain of the Ecuadorian producers who have between 150,000 and 200,000 tons of excessive rice in stock. Ecuador suspended in June 2008 its rice exports to Colombia and Peru due to a speculation wave after the seasonal flooding which resulted in the price rise at the domestic market. In April 2009, Ecuador resumed its rice exports to the two neighbors.