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Notice (8): Undefined variable: urlPrefix [APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8]latest-news-updates/vidarbha-west-mp-get-highest-rain-sanjeeb-mukherjee-22398.html"/> LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Vidarbha, West MP get highest rain-Sanjeeb Mukherjee | Im4change.org
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Vidarbha, West MP get highest rain-Sanjeeb Mukherjee
-The Business Standard


As the southwest monsoon enters the last leg of its four-month journey, 2013 will be remembered as one of the best years in overall quantum and distribution of rainfall across India. More than expected rain so far have pushed up kharif sowing in a big way, which will not only add its bit to gross domestic product (GDP) growth but blunt inflationary pressures.

If the intensity is maintained, India Meteorological Department (IMD) officials are hopeful the country might get more than 100 per cent of long period average (LPA) rains against the forecast of 98 per cent of LPA. Normal rainfall is 96-104 per cent of LPA, which is the average of rain received in the last 50 years, estimated at 890 millimetres.

Monsoon

"The trend is more or less on course for having good rain during the remaining part of the monsoon," D S Pai, director of Long Range Forecast in IMD told Business Standard. If the forecast comes correct, rainfall in 2013 will be among the best in the past decade.

The rains entered India on its normal arrival day, June 1 and thereafter has maintained a stupendous run across most states, barring some parts of the eastern and north-eastern areas.

In June, the country received 32 per cent more rain than normal, a record in itself. The last time June rains were better than this year's was in 2001, when rainfall in the month all over India was 36 per cent more than normal. In July, too, the country received 306.2 millimetres of rainfall, six per cent more than normal. So far in August, the rains have been 271.4 millimetres, which is four per cent more than the full-month normal. All over the country, rainfall was 14 per cent more than normal between June 1 and August 17.

Except for the northeastern states and some parts of Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal, the southwest monsoon has been excellent this time. Vidarbha, West Madhya Pradesh, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Telangana, Jammu and Kashmir and West Rajasthan had the most torrential rain till Saturday. In Vidarbha, which witnessed a drought last year, rainfall has been a whopping 70 per cent more than normal so far.

Rains have been 67 per cent more than normal in west Madhya Pradesh and 49 per cent in Telangana till August 17, data released by IMD showed. Arunachal Pradesh, with 41 per cent less than normal rainfall, Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur and Tripura with similar shortfall and Assam with 35 per cent less than normal rainfall have been the driest areas so far in this southwest monsoon.

However, normal rains in the northeast are much more than other parts of the country. "The total quantum of rainfall in North-eastern states is much more than any other place, hence the shortfall does not mean that there have been no rains in the region," said a senior met department official.

The strong showing of southwest monsoon has boosted sowing of kharif crops this year. Till last week, kharif crops have been sown in over 90 million hectares, which is almost 8-9 million hectares more than last year. In total, kharif crops are sown in around 108 million hectares.

The biggest gainers of this surge in monsoon have been rice, coarse cereals, oilseeds, cotton and pulses. Officials from the agriculture department said that if there is no major disruption in rains or prolonged dry period, India is on course to harvest a bumper crop.

This should come as good news to the government battling high inflation as production of pulses, which have a bearing on food inflation, and oil seeds, which impacts non-food primary goods inflation, is expected to be good. Production of vegetables, which pushed up wholesale price index-based inflation beyond the Reserve Bank of India's comfort zone in July, has also got a boost because of the good showers, experts said.

Rise in agri production will marginally push up the GDP growth, which fell to a decade low of five per cent in 2011-12, and provide impetus to the industry by increasing the rural demand and inputs for use to the secondary sector. Production in the secondary sector of the economy (industrial sector) contracted for the second month in a row in July, 2013 year-on-year.

Eighty-four major reservoirs in India are brimming with water because of the rains. According to the latest data from the Central Water Commission (CWC), water level in reservoirs is estimated to be 116.34 billion cubic metres, which is 145 per cent of last year's storage and 139 per cent of 10-year average storage. This should give a big boost to crop sowing in the following rabi crop, which relies largely on reservoirs and groundwater for its moisture.

Going forward, too, the met office is confident that rainfall in the remaining days of August and in September will be normal at around 96 per cent of LPA.

In September, India receives around 160 millimeters of rainfall out of the total 890 millimeters received in the full four-months. If that happens, 2013 will go down in history as one of the years witnessing the maximum rains.