<p>Mumbai: India's <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/tags/monsoon">monsoon </a>has delivered a fifth less rain than normal so far this season, the weather department said on Monday, in a worrying sign for the vital agricultural sector.</p><p>Summer rains, critical to economic growth in Asia's third-largest economy, usually begin in the south around June 1 before spreading nationwide by July 8, allowing farmers to plant crops such as rice, cotton, soybeans, and sugarcane.</p>.India's fizzling monsoon could prolong heatwave in north, Report.<p>India has received 20 per cent less rainfall than normal since June 1, according to data compiled by the India Meteorological Department (IMD), with almost all regions except for a few southern states seeing shortfalls and some northwestern states experiencing heat waves.</p><p>The rain shortfall in soybean, cotton, sugarcane, and pulses-growing central India has risen to 29 per cent, while the paddy-growing southern region received 17 per cent more rainfall than normal due to the early onset of the monsoon, according to the data.</p>.<p>The northeast has received 20 per cent less rainfall than normal so far, and the northwest some 68 per cent less.</p><p>The lifeblood of the nearly $3.5-trillion economy, the monsoon brings nearly 70 per cent of the rain India needs to water farms and refill reservoirs and aquifers.</p>.<p>In the absence of irrigation, nearly half the farmland in the world's second-biggest producer of rice, wheat and sugar depends on the annual rains that usually run until September.</p><p>"The monsoon's progress is stalled. It has weakened. But when it revives and becomes active, it can erase the rain deficit in a short burst," an IMD official told <em>Reuters</em>.</p>.<p>The official sought anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.</p>.<p>Heat wave conditions are likely to prevail in northern states for a few more days, but temperatures could start coming down from the weekend, the official added.</p><p>The maximum temperature in India's northern states is ranging between 42 and 47.6 degrees Celsius, about 4-9 C above normal, the IMD data showed. </p>
<p>Mumbai: India's <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/tags/monsoon">monsoon </a>has delivered a fifth less rain than normal so far this season, the weather department said on Monday, in a worrying sign for the vital agricultural sector.</p><p>Summer rains, critical to economic growth in Asia's third-largest economy, usually begin in the south around June 1 before spreading nationwide by July 8, allowing farmers to plant crops such as rice, cotton, soybeans, and sugarcane.</p>.India's fizzling monsoon could prolong heatwave in north, Report.<p>India has received 20 per cent less rainfall than normal since June 1, according to data compiled by the India Meteorological Department (IMD), with almost all regions except for a few southern states seeing shortfalls and some northwestern states experiencing heat waves.</p><p>The rain shortfall in soybean, cotton, sugarcane, and pulses-growing central India has risen to 29 per cent, while the paddy-growing southern region received 17 per cent more rainfall than normal due to the early onset of the monsoon, according to the data.</p>.<p>The northeast has received 20 per cent less rainfall than normal so far, and the northwest some 68 per cent less.</p><p>The lifeblood of the nearly $3.5-trillion economy, the monsoon brings nearly 70 per cent of the rain India needs to water farms and refill reservoirs and aquifers.</p>.<p>In the absence of irrigation, nearly half the farmland in the world's second-biggest producer of rice, wheat and sugar depends on the annual rains that usually run until September.</p><p>"The monsoon's progress is stalled. It has weakened. But when it revives and becomes active, it can erase the rain deficit in a short burst," an IMD official told <em>Reuters</em>.</p>.<p>The official sought anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.</p>.<p>Heat wave conditions are likely to prevail in northern states for a few more days, but temperatures could start coming down from the weekend, the official added.</p><p>The maximum temperature in India's northern states is ranging between 42 and 47.6 degrees Celsius, about 4-9 C above normal, the IMD data showed. </p>