Monsoon rains weaken as late retreat looms

By Ratnajyoti Dutta

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Monsoon is set for a delayed retreat this year as rains weakened last week after a fortnight of heavy downpours over major crop regions.

Usually, the monsoon season starts to diminish in early September, and withdraws completely from the grain bowl belt of northwest India by the middle of the month.

Monsoon rains strengthened in northwest India, however, earlier this month.

The delayed retreat is likely to aid sowing prospects next month for winter crops such as wheat and rapeseed by improving soil moisture content.

"Signs of the withdrawal are visible in the western parts," said D.S. Pai, lead forecaster of the Indian weather office.

The weather office treats dry weather conditions for five straight days in western India to be the basic criterion signifying the retreat of the June-September rainy season.

Monsoon rains are vital because more than half of India's farmland lacks irrigation, and the farm sector accounts for 14 percent of the national economy.

The monsoon is the main determinant of rural spending on consumer goods ranging from lipstick to cars as two-thirds of India's 1.2 billion people live in villages. Insufficient rains push up food prices.

Rains were a quarter below average in the week to Sept. 17, the weather office said on Thursday, a slide from the previous week's 64 percent surplus, the heaviest rainfall of any week during this monsoon season.

As the monsoon retreats, summer crops such as rice, corn, sugarcane, soybeans and cotton no longer need heavy precipitation, though sporadic rains can aid their growth.

"Conditions are becoming favourable for the withdrawal of the monsoon from some parts of northwest India during the next three days," Pai said.

(Editing by Dale Hudson)