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| Monsoon above average for 2nd week |
| Bloomberg / Sep 11, 2009, 00:20 IST |
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India’s monsoon rainfall, the main source of irrigation for the nation’s 235 million farmers, was above average for a second week, improving prospects for bigger crops of winter-sown wheat and oilseeds.
The nation received 56.2 millimetres (2.2 inches) of rain in the week ended September 9, compared with the long-period average of 46.3 millimetres, Surinder Kaur, director at New Delhi-based India Meteorological Department said. The deficit for the June-September season narrowed to 20 per cent from 23 per cent a week earlier, she said.
The revival in rains may help ease moisture stress among monsoon-sown crops such as rice, sugar cane and soybeans, and aid early planting of wheat and rapeseed crops. The worst start to the monsoon season in at least eight decades caused drought in about half the country.
“The main wheat-growing regions have got good rains and that’s good news for winter crops,” said D. Sivananda Pai, a director at the weather bureau in Pune city. “The revival will help reduce the deficit to some extent and fill reservoirs.”
Farmers use this water from reservoirs to grow wheat and oilseeds sown between October and December. The country’s 81 main reservoirs were 45 per cent full on September 3, up from 42 per cent a week earlier.
Planting of wheat and other winter-crops will begin early this year to make up for the 10 million tonnes loss of rice, Farm Minister Sharad Pawar said last month. Wheat may be seeded to a record 28 million hectares this winter, Agriculture Commissioner NB Singh told reporters on September 4.
The deficit in the northwest region, the country’s grain-bowl and the biggest sugar cane producer, narrowed to 34 per cent from 39 per cent yesterday. The shortfall in the central states was 15 per cent, weather bureau’s Kaur said.
The shortfall in the southern region narrowed to 8 per cent from 11 per cent a week earlier. The province includes Karnataka, Kerala and Maharashtra states, the biggest growers of sugar cane, peanuts, cotton and coffee. The deficit in the northeastern states, the biggest tea grower, dropped 23 per cent as of yesterday from 26 per cent a week ago.
India got 622.5 millimetres of rain in the June 1-September 9 period, compared with the average of 778 millimetres, said Kaur.
Rains were deficient or scanty in 21 of the nation’s 36 weather divisions so far this season, while 22 divisions got excess or normal rains, she said.
India’s northwest and central regions, the main sugar cane and soybean producing regions will receive heavy rains over the next two days, the weather bureau said in a report on its website on Thursday. The agency forecast August 10 rains will be 90 per cent of the average for the month.
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