Maturing crops get respite from heavy monsoon

Monsoon rains are expected to be lower than average in the next week, weather officials said on Thursday, providing an extended breather to summer crops such as soybean and cotton that faced a battering by heavy showers earlier this month.

Once summer crops are planted, they must avoid heavy showers during their growing phase and instead require rains at regular intervals to ensure healthy growth.

The monsoon, vital for the 55 per cent of Indian farmland that does not have irrigation, has already brought the heaviest rains in nearly two decades in the first half of the season, giving rise to an expectation of bumper harvests.

"The current weak phase in the monsoon is expected to continue early next week," said D S Pai, the lead forecaster of the India Meteorological Department.

Rains were 29 per cent below average in the week ending August 28 - their lowest weekly average this season - from 26 per cent above average the previous week. The rains eased over soybean growing areas of western India and also in cotton growing areas of northwest India.

But the monsoon was active in many eastern areas which grow rice, expediting the last leg of planting for the main food crop of the world's second most populous country. Farmers have already taken advantage of the heavy rains to plant 4.3 per cent more land with summer crops this year than normal. India is heavily reliant on the annual monsoon for its huge harvests of rice, sugar and cash crops like cotton.