New Delhi, Sep 8 (IANS) More and more Indian farmers are shifting to hybrid rice that promise higher yield.

"Cultivation of hybrid varieties of rice remained under one million hectares in the past but this year more farmers have opted to buy high-yielding sees of hybrid rice varieties," Agriculture Secretary Radha Singh told media here Friday.

"This year we expect a lot more areas to come under hybrid rice cultivation. It may be around 2-4 million hectares out of a total of 38 million hectares expected to be covered by paddy cultivation. Most of the hybrid sowing has been in Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Bihar with seeds being provide by private companies," said the official.

While declining to forecast the kharif (crop sown in summer) rice production this year, the official stated: "The expectations are of a better production than last year given that the hybrid varieties are expected to give a higher yield, possibly double the normal."

In the crop year of 2005-06, India had a record 92 million tonnes rice production - around five million tonnes more than the forecast.

Unlike wheat, cultivation of rice is done both during the summer and winter seasons, though paddy cultivation is done on a much smaller area in winter.

The agriculture ministry wants to push hybrid high-yielding varieties of rice and other crops following China's example.

China, which gradually shifted to hybrid crops, brought down the area under paddy cultivation to around 22 million hectares from over 32 million hectares without impacting the production.