India's annual monsoon rains, vital to the trillion-dollar economy's farm output and economic growth, were 11.1 percent below normal for June 1-23, sources at the weather office said on Thursday. "We are still hopeful of an improvement in rainfall by June end," a senior official at the India Meteorological Department, who could not be named as he is not authorised to speak to the media, said. On Wednesday, the Met...

The monsoon is expected to further advance across Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand over the next three to four days marking intensified rainfall activity, meteorologists said today. Rainfall from June 17-23 was subdued, 21 per cent below the expected normal levels. But weather features suggest that a spell of wet weather lies in the week ahead. “Overall, things appear to be getting better for the season,” said Damodar Pai, a senior...

Monsoon rains, which have entered the key soybean-growing areas, are likely to be weak in the next three days, weather officials said on Monday. But industry officials said sowing of soybean, the main summer-planted oilseed, would not be hit due to good soil moisture after recent pre-monsoon showers in the region. Weather officials said rains are likely to gather momentum from 25 June. “We expect monsoon flow to strengthen over central India from...

The Food Outlook of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) that came out in June, 2010 has predicted that world cereal production would be reaching a record level of 2279.5 million tonnes in 2010-2011, which would be an increase of 1.2 percent over last year’s global production of 2253.1 million tonnes. As a result, it has been predicted that there would be a modest increase in world trade in cereal...

Noted agriculture scientist and Rajya Sabha member M.S. Swaminathan on Wednesday asked the government to formulate a well-devised strategy to maximise the benefit of a good monsoon (that is predicted) to achieve a growth rate of at least five per cent in farm and allied sectors. “Climate-resilient agriculture” “Had we had a scientific monsoon management strategy, we could have minimised the loss last year,” he said inaugurating the National Consultation...