Monsoon picks up after dry start, rainfall 18 per cent above average

India saw 18 per cent more rain than average in the week ended August 6, the weather office said on Thursday, raising hopes for a better end to the four-month monsoon season after a dry start.

Rainfall had been 9 per cent below average in the previous week and a barren start to the season had raised fears of a drought, the first since 2009.

"Monsoon is in an active phase and no dry run is expected in the next week," said BP Yadav, head of the National Weather Forecasting Centre at the India Meteorological Department.

The wet run shrank the shortfall in rain to 18 per cent below average by August 6. The gap was 22 per cent for the first two months of the season that starts in June.

Many parts of the cane-growing western state of Maharashtra saw floods and landslides due to heavy rainfall during the past week. Rice areas of eastern Odisha state faced heavy flooding.

India's farming sector accounts for around 14 per cent of the economy, but two-thirds of the nation's 1.2 billion people depend on farming for a livelihood and more than half of its arable land needs the summer rains.

(Reuters)