'Overall we expect good monsoon this year,' Ajit Tyagi, director general, India Meteorological Department said.
In what could be good news for millions of farmers, the weatherman today said India could experience good monsoon this season after a year of drought that resulted in the loss of 16 million tonnes of foodgrain.
"Overall we expect good monsoon this year," Ajit Tyagi, director general, India Meteorological Department (IMD) told PTI here.
Tyagi met agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, who reviewed
the monsoon situation in the country against the backdrop of
cyclone 'Phet' threatening the progress of the annual rain
season.
Experts here believe that the severe cyclone churning up the Arabian Sea could have little effect on the monsoon as they forecast building up of weather patterns favourable to the annual rains.
"We expect normal monsoon with 98% (of the long period average of 89 cm) as projected earlier. There is no change," Tyagi said when asked about the rainfall this season.
The seasonal rains hit Kerala on May 31, as forecast by the IMD. As a effect of the cyclone, monsoon is expected to cover coastal parts of Kerala, Karnataka and Maharashtra while the interior parts of the peninsula are expected to receive monsoon rains in the next spell.
"Rainfall will pick up in Kerala from June 5 ownwards," he said.
Agriculture secretary PK Basu said that the monsoon has
stopped in the tracks due to cyclone Phet which is expected to
have landfall in coastal Pakistan and adjoining Gujarat by Friday.
"Monsoon is seen progressing from June 5 towards Karnataka. South-west monsoon has paused due to cyclone. There is no cause of concern as of now rains are good," Basu said.
Monsoon rains, considered the lifeline of Indian agriculture that powers the trillion-dollar economy. It is vital for kharif crops such as paddy, sugarcane, oilseeds and pulses.
Last year, almost half of the country faced severe drought due to failure of monsoon. As a result, India's foodgrain production declined to 218.19 million tonnes in 2009-10 crop year from record 234.47 million tonne in the previous year.
In April, the IMD had forecast normal monsoon rains for the season beginning June 1.
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