Monsoon rains revive in some parts in deficient year
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Monsoon rains have revived in central and northern parts of India known for soybean and sugarcane cultivation, a government official said on Wednesday, but warned the country is still expected to have below-average monsoon this year. Rainfall in July and August is likely to be better than in June, the first month of the four-month monsoon season when the precipitation was 43 percent below average across India, said Shailesh Nayak, the top bureaucrat in the Earth Sciences Ministry. One of the world's biggest producers and consumers of rice, corn, cooking oil, sugar and cotton, India relies heavily on the annual monsoon rains as nearly half of its farmland is rainfed. (Reporting by Ratnajyoti Dutta; Editing by Krishna N Das)
