India to get above average monsoon rains this year: IMD chief
May 09, 2017 21:56
Reiterating its forecast, the chief of the weather office on Tuesday said that India is likely to receive above average monsoon rainfall as concern over the El Nino weather condition has eased in the past few weeks
The state-run India Meteorological Department on April 18 forecast this year's monsoon rains at 96 percent of a 50-year average of 89 cm.
"Things have changed for good since then," KJ Ramesh, director general of the state-run India Meteorological Department, told Reuters in an interview.
The monsoon delivers about 70 percent of India's annual rainfall, critical for growing crops such as rice, cane, corn, cotton and soybeans because nearly half of the country's farmland lacks irrigation.
"We assessed 96 percent based on the climatological conditions up to March. Now, conditions are becoming favourable for an improvement over our April 18 estimate," he said.
India defines average, or normal, rainfall as between 96 percent and 104 percent of the 50-year average.
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