India's erratic monsoon turns surplus in past week

By Ratnajyoti Dutta

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India saw 18 percent more rain than average in the week ended Aug. 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 percent 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 B.P. Yadav, head of the National Weather Forecasting Centre at the India Meteorological Department.

The wet run shrank the shortfall in rain to 18 percent below average by Aug. 6. The gap was 22 percent 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 percent 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.

(Editing by Mark Potter)