According to the national crop forecasting centre of the union agriculture ministry, better ground availability of seeds and fertilisers this time should really give a fillip to the kharif prospects.

Good pre-monsoon showers in the north-eastern states and Kerala during May have helped early completion of the paddy sowing operations, particularly the aus paddy in the eastern states.

By May 31, early paddy sowing was complete in 9.1 million hectares of the total area of 9.4 million hectares under such varieties. Sowing is still in progress in Assam, West Bengal and Kerala, holding out the prospects of a significant increase in the normal area under the early kharif paddy.

The monsoon arrived almost a week ahead of its normal date of June 1 over Keralaand soon branched out into the north-east and the Konkan coast-peninsular states.

A net increase is also noted in the area sown under sugarcane. By May- end, sugarcane planting was complete in 3.85 million hectares, compared to 3.70 million hectares on the corresponding day last year. Because of the good pre-monsoon and early monsoon rains, the sugarcane crop this year is expected to be bigger.

The crop forecasting centre has also reported a significant increase in the area sown under the groundnut and sesame, major kharif oilseed crops. Groundnut which accounts for 65 per cent of the kharif oilseeds is already sown in 1.45 million hectares against last year's 1.28 million hectares. This is primarily because of the early sowings facilitated by the cyclonic rains in Gujarat, the principal producer of groundnut.

The India meteorological department has forecast that the country would have its 11th successive ``normal monsoon'' this year. The ``normal monsoon'' indicates that that the overall rainfallduring the June-September period would have a ten per cent up or down variation in its long period average.