ABIDJAN, July 1 (Reuters) - More cocoa flowers than last year have started to appear on green trees ahead of the next October-to-March main crop thanks to favourable growing conditions, farmers from Ivory Coast's main cocoa growing regions said on Monday.

As the April-to-September mid-crop is in its last stage, farmers have turned their attention to the main crop, which will require a good mix of sun and rainfall in July and August.

Ivory Coast, the world's top cocoa producer, is in its rainy season, which runs from April to mid-November. Rains are usually abundant during this period but last week, they were below average in most of the cocoa growing regions.

Farmers said the soil moisture content was helping the trees to grow and warned that heavy rains could damage the flowers and therefore reduce the size of the crop.

"Flowering for main crop has started well. But if there is heavy rain this month, many flowers will fall from the trees," said cooperative member Kouassi Kouame, who farms near the western region of Soubre, at the heart of the cocoa belt, where 44.9 millimetres (mm) fell last week, 3 mm below the five-year average.

Similar comments were reported in the southern regions of Agboville and Divo, where rain was also below average last week, and in the eastern region of Abengourou, where rain was above average.

Farmers from those areas also said they expected the mid-crop to finish strong.

In the west-central region of Daloa and in the central regions of Bongouanou and Yamoussoukro, where rains were below average, farmers said the next main crop would start early if weather conditions remained good in July.

"We need a little more rain and sunshine. But for the moment all is well in the plantations. If the weather continues to be good, the harvest will start early and be better this year," said Patrice Allangba, who farms near Daloa, where 13.4 mm fell last week, 14.7 mm below the average.

The weekly average temperature across Ivory Coast ranged from 24.9 to 27.9 degrees Celsius. (Reporting by Loucoumane Coulibaly; Editing by Anait Miridzhanian and David Evans)