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The southwest monsoon revived over much of the country’s northwest, central and western parts on Monday.
It is expected to maintain intensity till at least Friday, says the India Meteorological Department.
This is needed for further planting of oilseeds, pulses, coarse cereals and, to some extent, cotton. Also, for their survival, which could have been hit if the showers had remained subdued for long.
Private weather forecasting agency Skymet said rainfall would be good over north and east India this week but subdued over peninsular India and the northeastern parts. It said a weather system was developing over the Bay of Bengal, which should give a good amount of rain over Central India as well.
“There is dry weather since June-end. Adequate rains are required this week to protect crops that were sown in the past 10-15 days,”J S Sandhu, deputy director-general, Indian Council for Agricultural Research, told news agency PTI.
Soybean, pulses and cotton in central and southern India are heavily dependent on rain. The area sown under these has risen sharply so far this kharif season, he said.
India Ratings and Research said the impact of a deficient monsoon on rural spending would be “less severe” than what it used to be a decade earlier, as the rural landscape had considerably changed. A reduction in rural spending due to a bad monsoon would be more of a psychological outcome than a sudden fall in affordability.
“The rural economy is now benefiting more from industrial expansion than the urban economy. All this implies rural income is far less vulnerable to the monsoon than a few decades ago,” it said, adding that two-thirds of rural income now originated from non-agricultural activities.
