Monsoon gains strength, drought severity declines
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Monsoon in the country has splashed back into life, lifting the threat of prolonged drought in the major rice and sugar producing areas with a second consecutive week of heavier-than-normal rains that could revive yields of summer crops and enable early winter planting.
The rains, vital for the 55 per cent of India’s farmland without irrigation, were a hefty 31 per cent above average in the past week, the weather office said on Thursday. Three-quarters of the way into the season the rains are still 10 per cent short of normal, but the drought’s severity has declined as rainfall picked up during the last fortnight in West and South India, where output of cereals and pulses had been threatened.
The revival has allowed the government to hold off further crisis action and it has postponed to next week a planned summit on the drought — the second such meeting this year. “The monsoon scenario has improved as most of the drought-hit areas of South and Eastern regions of the country received heavy splash in last week,” said a senior official of the IMD, who did not want to be named.
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