India: Monsoon rains reaches Kerala after longest delay in seven years
The monsoon, the lifeblood of India's $3 trillion economy, provides about 70 per cent of the rain required to irrigate fields and replenish reservoirs and aquifers
A fisherman arranges his fishing net at a beach against the backdrop of pre-monsoon clouds in the southern Indian city of Kochi. Reuters
Monsoon rains arrived on India’s southernmost Kerala coast on Thursday, bringing comfort to farmers after a more than a week wait and being the latest arrival in seven years.
The monsoon, the lifeblood of India’s $3 trillion economy, provides about 70 per cent of the rain required to irrigate fields and replenish reservoirs and aquifers.
In the lack of irrigation infrastructure, about half of India’s cropland is dependent on the June-September rains, and their late arrival might cause rice, cotton, corn, soybean, and sugar cane sowing to be delayed, merchants warned.
“Southwest Monsoon has set in over Kerala today, the 8th June 2023, against the normal date of 1st June,” the state-run India Meteorological Department (IMD) said in a statement.
This year the IMD had expected the arrival of monsoon rains over the state’s coast on June 4, but the formation of a severe cyclonic storm Biparjoy in the Arabian Sea delayed their onset.
The IMD confirms the monsoon has begun after taking into account rainfall measured at weather stations in the southern state of Kerala and westerly wind speeds.
Conditions are favourable for the monsoon to further advance into the central Arabian Sea and some parts of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka states, the IMD said.
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