India will witness "below-average" rainfall in the next 2-3 weeks, says a US-based weather forecasting firm, dashing hopes of a monsoon recovery.
"India's monsoon will continue (to be) unusually weak during the next 2-3 weeks, resulting in below-average rainfall over a large part of the nation," World Weather Inc has said in a report.
India's weather office had pegged the deficiency in rainfall at 18 per cent on July 29, compared with 27 per cent on July 15.
Poor rainfall has cast a gloom on farm output. The report says that "production potentials are at a risk and late August to early September rainfall will be the most crucial of all for the northern and central part of the nation".
"Many of the rice areas will see timely rainfall in September but the amount will be below average. The bottom line still represents a production cut," it adds.
Already, paddy acreage declined to 191.30 lakh hectares as on July 30 in the ongoing sowing season, compared with 256.76 lakh hectares in the year-ago period.
The report says that above-average rainfall towards the end of this month in northen India is important so that oilseeds and coarse grain crops have enough moisture to carry on normal development after the monsoon withdraws.