Rainfall in Aug, Sept to be normal, says IMD; more area under kharif crops

Rainfall in the second half of the southwest monsoon (August-September) season this year is expected to be normal, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said in its latest forecast on Friday.

The meteorological department said that rainfall in August is projected to be within the normal range at 97% of the Long Period Average (LPA). This is with a model error of plus/minus 9 per cent. In August and September, India receives around 43 mm of rainfall.

While rainfall in June was more than normal, the pace slacked in July.

In June and July, monsoon has been 18 per cent less than normal in northern India, 4 per cent less in central India, 12 per cent more in southern and 12 per cent more in eastern and northeastern India.

Enthused by the initial good rains, farmers across the country have planted kharif crops in almost 14 per cent more area than the last year till July 31. In this, the maximum growth in area covered has been in groundnut, castor, moong, urad and millets.

Water levels in over 123 reservoirs across the country has also improved considerably due to good rains and the storage is around 62.92 Billion Cubic Meters (BCM) till July 31, which is 141% more than last year’s storage and 103% more than the average of last 10 years’ storage.

The following chart explains the sowing progress so far of kharif crops.