Met rules out significant resurgence in monsoon next week
16 Jul 2010
According to the meteorological department, a significant resurgence in the monsoon next week is not expected. Analysts say this could be potentially damaging the sowing of soyabean and paddy.
B P Yadav, director and spokesman at the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said, ''It will not be a major revival next week.''
The department had earlier forecast 98 per cent recovery in of rainfall in July after it fell 16 per cent short of average last month.
The department's new forecast may be bad news for crucial kharif crops such as soybean, rice, cotton, sugarcane and corn, over which there are already worries. Further, there may be negative implications for sugarcane with July being a key sowing month.
The dry spell forecast follows deficient monsoon rains which were recorded at 24 per cent deficit last week. A good monsoon raised the prospect of the food inflation easing for about two weeks, but so far only the southern meteorological region has registered excess rainfall.
This spells bad news on the price front with the annual rate of inflation now persisting above 10 per cent for five months even without the full impact of a recent hike in fuel prices.