MUMBAI: India’s Yearbook monsoon rain has covered more than half of the country and conditions are favorable to advance into the central, northern and western regions this week, the weather department said on Monday.
The advance of the monsoon will help farmers speed up sowing of summer-sown crops, which have been delayed due to below-average rainfall in the first half of June, particularly in central India.
That monsoon has covered all of southern and eastern India and most of Madhya Pradesh, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said in a statement.
“The monsoon has picked up again. This week many regions in south and central India would get heavy rains,” an IMD official told Reuters.
Conditions are favorable for the monsoon to advance further into Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, said the official, who was not authorized to speak to the media and declined to be identified.
India received 8% less rainfall than the historical average from June 1 – when the monsoon season began – to June 19, IMD data showed. From June 1 to 14, the rainfall deficit was 36%.
The monsoon — which accounts for almost 70% of annual rainfall and is the lifeblood of its $2.7 trillion agriculture-dependent economy — hit the coast of Kerala on May 29, two days earlier than usual. Its advance came later ground to a halt for over a week.
Cotton, soybean, corn and rice sowings have lagged in key growing countries but could accelerate from this week, a senior government official told Reuters.
“The sowing window is still open. Farmers have completed the land preparation work. They will grow crops as soon as they get enough rain,” the official said, declining to be identified.
Millions of people in northeastern Bangladesh and neighboring Bangladesh have been left out due to heavy rains in recent days, but rainfall intensity in the region could ease this week, the IMD official said.