India’s monsoon has delivered 1 percent more rain than normal so far this year, but erratic distribution has flooded some areas and left others in drought, clouding the outlook for key summer-sown crops more than midway through the season.
The uneven rains could lead to lower food grain output despite bigger planting areas, forcing India to raise imports of edible oils, sugar and pulses, and potentially limiting exports of cotton, rice and feed ingredients, traders said.
According to the state-run India Meteorological Department (IMD), the Marathwada region in central India has received 21 percent lower rainfall than normal this monsoon, whereas areas like western Rajasthan got as much as 126 percent more rain than normal.
Monsoons deliver about 70 percent of India’s annual rainfall and are critical for farmers because half of their lands lack irrigation. Farms account for 15 percent of India’s $2 trillion economy and employ more than half of its 1.3 billion people.
Prices of some vegetables reacted quickly to the uneven rains. Onion prices doubled in a fortnight, and tomato prices quadrupled in a month.
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Source: Reuter News, 3 August 2017