Monsoons to slowly pickup pace

New Delhi: India's monsoon rains, the lifeline of its economy, are not very active but are expected to revive towards the end of the week, a top weather department official said on Monday.

The official said that rainfall so far in July, a crucial month for crop growth and sowing, had been close to normal but unevenly distributed.

As two-thirds of the population of more than one billion live off farm-related activities, the monsoon plays a crucial role in determining rural incomes and consumer spending for a wide range of goods.

"There are rains in some regions like Bihar and West Bengal but not much," said the official from the India Metereological Department's main observatory in of Pune.

"It is not in a very active phase, not giving heavy rains," the official said, adding that rainfall between July 1 and 12 was 98 per cent of the long period average.

"Rainfall so far in the month has not been bad, but we have the maximum rains in July and looking at that it is not well distributed," he said.

The four-month monsoon, the main source of water for most farms in India, arrived six days ahead of schedule on May 26 in Kerala and then swept across about half of the country.

But the rains then went into a lull. Between June 1 and 21 they were 24 per cent below normal before again gaining in strength.

Between June 1 and July 12, the cumulative rainfall across the country was 10 per cent below normal, the department said.

The weather office has said it expects this year's rainfall to be slightly below normal but also that rains in July should be 97 per cent of the long-period average.

"By the end of this week around July 23, we may see a revival and we will get good rains after that," the weather official said.

The official said rains so far have not been bad for farming purposes, except in the oilseed-growing state of Madhya Pradesh where the showers have been erratic.

Farm ministry officials say planting of winter harvested crops such as rice and oilseeds have been satisfactory.

Apart from rice and cotton, soybean and groundnut are the main oilseeds sown during the monsoon season and harvested in the winter months.