Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar held a meeting here with India Meteorological Department (IMD) Director General L S Rathore and Food Minister K V Thomas to review the monsoon situation.
Briefing reporters, Rathore said: "Rainfall situation has improved but it is still minus 23 per cent. Monsoon is covering entire country today with parts of Gujarat and Rajasthan receiving heavy rains".
Later, Pawar said the situation had improved during the last ten days but there was still a shortfall.
"For the country as a whole, the rainfall situation is definitely improving vis-a-vis 10 days back. But the worrisome areas are Karnataka and central Maharashtra," the Minister said.
The two states have received scanty rains so far and the situation has not improved to the satisfactory level, he said.
Pawar pointed out that "there is a cause of concern about coarse cereals (bajra, jowar and maize) production and drinking water supply in these two states".
Overall, Pawar noted there is no cause for concern over paddy, cotton, sugarcane and oilseed as sowing operations are expected to pick up.
He also did not foresee any adverse impact of deficient rains on availability and prices of food items, particularly, fruits and vegetables.
The south-west monsoon had hit Kerala on June 5, but made slow progress affecting sowing of major Kharif crops such as paddy, some pulses like moong, oilseeds and coarse cereals. The area under these crops are so far less than last year. (MORE)
