Southwest monsoon in active phase, cuts overall deficit to 2%: IMD

Aided by a low-pressure area over central India, the southwest monsoon has picked up pace, bringing bountiful showers to the region in time for the sowing of Kharif crops.

The weather office on Tuesday said central India and the west coast would experience active monsoon conditions for the next five days while the north-western parts of the country are expected to receive seasonal showers from Wednesday.

Under the influence of the low-pressure area over central parts of Madhya Pradesh, an associated cyclonic circulation and an off-shore trough from Gujarat to Maharashtra, fairly widespread rainfall has been forecast for the next five days in these regions as well as in Telangana, Kerala, coastal Karnataka and Odisha, said the India Meteorological Department.

A good spell of rainfall over the past couple of days has helped reduce the cumulative deficit for the country to two per cent from eight per cent last Friday, the weather office data showed.

Monsoon continues to remain deficient in Uttar Pradesh (-48 per cent), Jharkhand (-42 per cent), Kerala (-38 per cent), Odisha (-26 per cent), Mizoram (-25 per cent), Manipur (-24 per cent) and Gujarat (-22 per cent), the IMD data on daily rainfall showed.

On the farm front, the sowing of Kharif crops has been slow as farmers had brought 278.72 lakh hectares of farmland under cultivation till July 1 as against 294.42 lakh hectares for the same period last year.

Data from the Agriculture Ministry showed that rice was sown over 43.45 lakh hectares compared to 59.56 lakh hectares in 2021, which is 16.11 lakh hectares less.

Pulses have been sown over 28.06 lakh hectares, compared to 26.23 lakh hectares in 2021, which is 1.83 lakh hectares more. The total area under coarse cereals cultivation has witnessed a decline with 46.34 lakh hectares compared to 50.36 lakh hectares in 2021.