INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Nearly half of India's farmland, which has no irrigation cover, depends on June-September rainMonsoon rains that mark the start of the
four-month rainy season are likely to enter India through the southern coast around June 1, in line with typical patterns, a top government
official said on Thursday
"This is an early indication," Madhavan Rajeevan, secretary of the Ministry of Earth Sciences, said in a tweet
India's weather office will issue its official forecast for this year's monsoon onset on May 15, Rajeevan said.Nearly half of the
farm output, which is central to the country's economy.Last year, monsoon rains, which typically arrive on the southern tip of Kerala state
around June 1 and retreat from the desert state of Rajasthan by September, were above average for the second year in a row - the first time
that has happened in more than six decades
Last year's monsoon rains replenished soil moisture and led to higher crop yields.
