By Pratik Parija Feb. 5 (Bloomberg) -- The wheat harvest in India, the world’s second-biggest grower, may exceed last year’s record as favorable weather in the main growing regions improves yields, a government official said. Production may total about 82 million metric tons, up from 80.58 million tons gathered last year, said S.S. Singh, head of the state-owned Directorate of Wheat Research. Wheat, planted in October, accounts for 70 percent of India’s winter-sown grains. A record crop for a second year may help the country make up for drought-damaged harvests of rice, sugar cane and oilseeds that’s driven up food inflation to a near 11-year high. The U.S. Department of Agriculture may next week increase its estimate on the global wheat stockpiles to 195.95 million tons from 195.6 million tons in January, according to the average estimates in a survey by Bloomberg News. “Temperatures have been favorable so far and it is good for the crop,” Singh said in an interview by phone from the northern Indian city of Karnal. “There is no report any disease throughout the country.” Indian farmers planted wheat across 27.64 million hectares (68.3 million acres) as of Jan. 21, compared with 27.56 million hectares a year earlier, the farm ministry said Jan. 22. Wheat for March delivery declined as much as 0.5 percent to $4.735 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade, paring the first weekly gain in four weeks on speculation world stockpiles before the 2010 harvest may be bigger than estimated by the USDA. Futures dropped 11 percent in 2009. To contact the reporter on this story: Pratik Parija in New Delhi at pparija@bloomberg.net

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