India has received 20 percent less rainfall than normal since June 1: IMD, raises alarms for agri sector

India has received 20 percent less rainfall than normal since June 1, according to data compiled by the state-run India Meteorological Department (IMD), with almost all regions except for a few southern states seeing shortfalls and some northwestern states experiencing heat waves.

India's monsoon has delivered a fifth less rain than normal so far this season, the weather department said on June 17, in a worrying sign for the vital agricultural sector. 

Summer rains, critical to economic growth in Asia’s third-largest economy, usually begin in the south around June 1 before spreading nationwide by July 8, allowing farmers to plant crops such as rice, cotton, soybeans, and sugarcane. 

The rain shortfall in soybean, cotton, sugarcane, and pulses-growing central India has risen to 29 percent, while the paddy-growing southern region received 17 percent more rainfall than normal due to the early onset of the monsoon, according to the data. The northeast has received 20 percent less rainfall than normal so far, and the northwest some 68 percent less. 

In the absence of irrigation, nearly half the farmland in the world's second-biggest producer of rice, wheat and sugar depends on the annual rains that usually run until September. 

Monsoon rains are essential for India's $3.5 trillion economy, supplying 70 per cent of the water needed for farming and replenishing reservoirs and aquifers. Nearly half of India's farmland, being non-irrigated, relies on the annual monsoon rains that typically last until September, the report said. 

"The monsoon's progress is stalled. It has weakened. But when it revives and becomes active, it can erase the rain deficit in a short burst," an IMD official told Reuters. 

Heatwave conditions are likely to prevail in northern states for a few more days, but temperatures could start coming down from the weekend, the official added. 

The maximum temperature in India's northern states ranges between 42 and 47.6 degrees Celsius, about 4-9 degree Celsius above normal, the IMD data showed.