Monsoon may revive fully by June 4

India’s monsoon, which accounts for four-fifths of the nation’s annual rains, may fully revive by June 4 and advance in to the main cotton and sugar cane-growing regions, the state-owned weather bureau said.

The system is showing “signals of revival” and covered more parts of the southern Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh states on Monday, said BP Yadav, a spokesman for the New Delhi-based India Meteorological Department. The monsoon had stalled since May 25.

India’s 235 million farmers, together the world’s second-biggest producers of rice and wheat, rely on the rainy season to water their farms as about 60 per cent of the arable land isn’t irrigated. Winter-harvested crops, including corn, lentils and soybeans, are planted after the onset of the monsoon.

“Southwest monsoon has further advanced into some more parts of central Arabian Sea, coastal and south interior Karnataka, some parts of Rayalaseema and south coastal Andhra Pradesh and some more parts of west central Bay of Bengal,” the weather bureau said in a statement on its website.

Rains covered the entire southern states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, parts of coastal Karnataka, most parts of the Bay of Bengal and some parts of the eastern states of Orissa, West Bengal and Sikkim by May 25, the weather office said.

Tropical Cyclone Aila, which lashed the coasts of India and Bangladesh last week, hampered the progress of the monsoon beyond Karnataka, the weather office said. The monsoon system will next move to Maharashtra, the nation’s biggest sugar cane producer and the second-largest cotton grower.

Timely rain may help the nation’s new government sustain a record 4.3 per cent average growth in farm production since 2005, increasing incomes among the 742 million people who live in the countryside.

Rains this season may be 96 per cent of the 50-year average, the weather office said April 17.

The bureau classifies rain as near normal when it’s between 96 per cent and 104 per cent of the 50-year average.