Monsoon, the main source for irrigation for the country’s 235 million farmers, may be on the lower end of a forecast, a weather bureau official said, likely paring harvests of crops, including rice and lentils.
Falls in the June-September season will be 93 per cent of the long-period average of 89 centimetres (35 inches), with a margin of error of 4 per cent, the government forecast June 24, scaling down an April forecast for normal monsoon.
“Rain have improved significantly in the last one month. Yet, overall rain may be on the lower side of our forecast for the season as a whole,” Ajit Tyagi, director general at India Meteorological Department, said.
Rain in July, the wettest month in the June-to-September monsoon season, were 98 per cent of the long-period mean, or more than forecast, said Tyagi. That wasn’t enough to make up the 52 per cent shortfall in June, and rice output will decline from a record last year as farmers planted fewer acres, Farm Minister Sharad Pawar said earlier.
Farmers sowed rice in 19.13 million hectares (47.3 million acres), compared with 25.7 million hectares a year earlier, the farm ministry said July 31.