The country is expected to receive below normal monsoon rainfall this year. “The monsoon season rainfall for the country as a whole between June and September is likely to be below normal at 93 per cent,” Minister of State for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh said on Monday.
He, however, said that adequate and timely arrangements will be made to counter the adverse effect, if any. The expected rainfall is below what the India Meteorological Department (IMD) had predicted at 95 per cent, in April. The less rainfall is being attributed to El-Nino condition, whose chances of occurrence are as high as 70 per cent. The Met Department said that monsoon is likely to hit Delhi by June 29.
The decrease in monsoon rainfall in India, the main source of irrigation for the nation’s 263 million farmers, will hit the yield of crops from rice to soybeans and sugar.IMD Director General lS Rathore said the condition is expected to peak around the end of July and early August but as of now, “It is at the threshold of being qualified as a weak El Nino”.
The condition is associated with the warming of sea temperature.Earth Science Secretary Shailesh Nayak said the Government had already initiated steps when the IMD came out with the initial forecast in April.According to IMD, rainfall in July is expected to be 93 per cent and in August 96 per cent.It is likely to be 85 per cent of the long period average over northwest India, 94 per cent over central India, 93 per cent over southern peninsula and 99 per cent over north-eastern India with a model error of plus-minus eight per cent, said Nayak.