Monsoon 36% below average in first week

The country received 14 mm rainfall from June 1-6 as against 19.9 mm, the average rainfall considered as normal for the period, the India Meteorological Department said. Monsoon is crucial for agriculture as only 40% of the cultivable area is under irrigation. The farm sector contributes about only 15% to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), but it employs about 60% of the population.

?Farmers have started sowing rice, pulses and cotton in some areas and production prospects are still good as the monsoon is expected to be normal,? said AK Singh, deputy director-general of the state-run Indian Council of Agricultural Research.

Crops are not greatly affected by the volume of rain in the initial stages of the four-month long rainy season, but the distribution of rainfall in mid-July, after the monsoon has covered the entire country, is critical for their growth.

?Rainfall activities have improved over the west coast and northeast region,? said a senior official of the India Meteorological Department. The monsoon hit Kerala coast on Tuesday, four days after its usual arrival date, as a cyclone on the west coast had stalled the onset of the rains.

The weather office had predicted a June 1 start for the rains, with a four-day margin of error. Its forecast of average rainfall for the whole season, which runs from June to September, would make this year the third in a row to escape a drought.

Weather officials said the rains had arrived in west coast areas where cane, tea, coffee, rubber and cotton are grown, while growing areas in eastern India still await rain to speed up rice planting. ?We expect rains to cover more parts of south and eastern India next week,? the weather official said. The monsoon enter the soybean areas of central India after the second week of June, by which point half of the country is being covered by the rains.The IMD is expected to release its outlook for the rest of the monsoon during the third week of June.