Farmers in India, the world’s second-largest cotton grower, may plant more of the crop than estimated after monsoon rains covered the main growing regions early, easing a drought that cut production the previous year.Prospects for better yields and a jump in inventories may boost India’s exportable surplus, potentially pressuring prices in New York that climbed 13 percent this year, the biggest gain among the 24 commodities tracked by a source. Global output will drop 4.8 percent in the season starting Aug. 1, while demand climbs 2.3 percent, the International Cotton Advisory Committee estimates. Dry weather is hampering crops in Texas, the biggest U.S. growing state.

“The monsoon is fairly cooperative and the progress has been good,” A Ramani, secretary of the Indian Cotton Federation, which represents 350 spinners, ginners and traders, said. “We should see a normal crop next year.”

The monsoon, which accounts for more than 70 percent of the country’s annual rainfall, reached Maharashtra and Gujarat at least five days earlier than normal. Showers, which have been 17 percent more than a 50-year average since June 1, were as much as 166 percent above average in Gujarat and 107 percent more in Maharashtra, the department’s data showed. The states are the nation’s top growers, representing almost 50 percent of the crop.

“In certain areas such as Gujarat, the farmers planting intentions suggest that they will plant less, but this will be compensated by higher area in other states such as Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka, where the rains have already arrived,” Ramani said.