Monsoon rains lash Kerala coast, to spur growth

Weather office on April 18 forecast this year's monsoon rains at 96% of a 50-year average of 89 cm

Crop-nourishing monsoon rains lashed the Kerala coast of India's southwest on Tuesday, the India Meteorological Department said, the earliest start to the rains since 2011 which should boost the world's fasting growing economy's agriculture.

The monsoon delivers about 70 percent of India's annual rainfall, critical for the farm sector that accounts for about 15 percent of India's $2 trillion economy and employs more than half of the country's 1.3 billion people.

India's 260 million farmers depend on monsoon rains to grow crops such as rice, cane, corn, cotton and soybeans because nearly half of the country's farmland lacks irrigation. Higher farm incomes