India’s annual monsoon has covered more than three-fourths of the country and is set to cover the entire country on time for the planting season, despite stalling earlier this month, according to two senior weather officials.
The southwest monsoon usually begins in the south around June 1 and spreads nationwide by July 8, allowing farmers to plant critical crops such as rice, cotton, soybeans, and sugarcane. Although the monsoon’s progress had stalled earlier this month, leading to a 19% rainfall deficit since June 1, the weather pattern is now advancing quickly in northern India.
“Monsoon is advancing quickly in northern India and will cover the entire country on time,” said an anonymous official from the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
The monsoon advanced on Thursday, covering more parts of Rajasthan, most of Madhya Pradesh, additional areas of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and nearly all of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, according to an IMD statement.
The monsoon is the lifeblood of India’s nearly $3.5-trillion economy, bringing nearly 70% of the rain the country needs to water farms and refill reservoirs and aquifers. Without irrigation, nearly half of the farmland in the world’s second-biggest producer of rice, wheat, and sugar depends on the annual rains that usually run from June to September.
Another weather official stated that rainfall is picking up, and most parts of the country will receive good rainfall in the next fortnight, accelerating the planting of summer-sown crops. The current rainfall deficit is expected to narrow significantly by mid-July.