July 23 (Bloomberg) -- India’s rain deficit<http://www.imd.gov.in/section/nhac/dynamic/seasonalra.htm> narrowed to 19 percent as the monsoon, the main source of irrigation for the nation’s 235 million farmers, gathered momentum, aiding sowing prospects, the weather office said.
The country got 298.7 millimeters (11.8 inches) of showers from June 1 to July 22, compared with 368.8 millimeter average for the period, said S. Kaur<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=S.+Kaur&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>, a director at India Meteorological Department<http://www.imd.gov.in/section/nhac/dynamic/week.htm>, in a phone interview from New Delhi. Showers were 15 percent above average<http://www.imd.gov.in/section/hydro/dynamic/weelly-rainfall.htm> in the week ended yesterday, she said. Deficient rains have caused acreages of all major crops to lag year ago levels, denting prospects for bigger harvests of rice, oilseeds and sugar cane. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Manmohan+Singh&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1> is relying on an increase in farm output to push economic growth back to a 9 percent pace and meet a poll promise of ensuring food security for poor families. “Most parts of the country will continue to get good rains in the coming weeks and agriculture will be more or less safe,” D. Sivananda Pai<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=D.+Sivananda+Pai&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>, a director at the weather bureau, said today in a phone interview. “There’s no case for undue worry.” Rains were 38 percent below normal in the northwest region, the nation’s grain bowl, in the June 1-to-July 22 period, Kaur said. The region includes the biggest grain growing states of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana. Uttar Pradesh is also the nation’s second-biggest sugar producer. Western Indian states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, the biggest cotton-growing regions, and parts of the central state of Madhya Pradesh, the biggest soybean producer, will get widespread rains in the next two days, the weather bureau said on its Web site<http://www.imd.gov.in/section/nhac/dynamic/allindianewct.htm> . Tea Crop India’s northeast, home to the nation’s biggest tea growing states of Assam and West Bengal, will also get fairly widespread rains from July 26, the agency said. Rains have been 43 percent below normal in the region, damaging the tea crop, Kaur said. Sowing of monsoon crops begins in June and ends mostly by July. Harvesting starts in September. Rains were normal or excess in 17 of 36 meteorological divisions this monsoon season, weather bureau said. Nineteen divisions, mostly in the north and the east of the country, recorded scanty or deficient rains. Showers in the June-to-September rainy season may be below normal, or 93 percent of the long-period mean of 89 centimeters (35 inches), the weather office June 24. In April, the bureau had forecast rains to be near normal. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=alT6.M0cz5DQ -- *Swami Vivekananda's life through pictures.* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JntwFFlzecA --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""GLOBAL SPECULATORS"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/globalspeculators?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
