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Monsoon covers 40% of India, sowing begins

India's southwest monsoon has covered more than 40 per cent of the country and is likely to advance towards the major groundnut and cotton producing state of Gujarat in a couple of days, weather officials said on Wednesday.

The monsoon, which accounts for nearly 80 per cent of India's rainfall, is about five days behind schedule and has not moved beyond coastal areas in Maharashtra, a key cotton and sugar producing state, they said.

"Conditions are now favourable for further advancement of the monsoon as we are witnessing a big cloud mass starting from Sri Lanka to the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh," said V Thapliyal, deputy director-general of the Pune-based central weather forecasting department.

Wind circulation patterns were also favourable, he said.

More than 70 per cent of India's total cultivated land needs rain for irrigation. The monsoon is therefore vital to the farm sector, which accounts for 25 per cent of GDP and employs 70 per cent of the country's more than one billion people.

Weather officials said the slow progress of the monsoon was not a matter of concern.

"A delay of four-five days is quite normal," said a senior official of the Mumbai-based weather office.

In the past week, rainfall was more than normal in areas where the monsoon had reached, officials said.

The India Meteorological Department has forecast that the monsoon, which runs from June to September, will be normal. A monsoon is normal if the total rainfall deviates from the long-term average by a maximum of 10 per cent.

CROP SOWING STARTS

Farmers have begun planting crops in many parts of India and sowing will pick up as the monsoon advances, traders said.

They have started preparing rice nurseries in major growing areas and planting will begin from the month-end, they said.

"One does not need much water or land for preparing a rice nursery," said a scientist at the Orissa-based Central Rice Research Institute, adding that a crop is ready for full-scale sowing only three weeks after it is planted in a nursery.

Cotton planting in irrigated areas of north India has been almost completed but is yet to begin in Maharashtra and Gujarat, leading producer states.

Groundnut planting would start in about a week in Maharashtra and after about two weeks in Gujarat, traders said.

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