NEW DELHI (Dow Jones)--India's summer-sown rice output in 2008 is estimated at 83.25 million tons, up from 82.81 million tons a year earlier, Agriculture Secretary T. Nanda Kumar said Thursday.

  This is the first batch of advance summer-sown crop output estimates.    India's summer-sown oilseed output is projected at 17.95 million tons, down from 19.84 million tons a year earlier, Kumar said.   The summer crop is sown in June and harvested in October, while planting of the winter-sown crop will begin next month.

India's total foodgrain output from summer is now estimated at 115.33 million tons, as the rice crop is expected to be higher than earlier expected.

  The rise in foodgrain output is despite lower rainfall in some parts in the first few weeks of the four-month monsoon season and floods in August and September, Kumar said.

  "The area (under summer-crop) is higher this year and the yield has gone up," Kumar said.

  Floods and late rains in India have affected 450,000 hectares of crop land in three states during the summer crop sowing season, the federal agricultural secretary said Thursday.