Rice, Cotton, Oilseed Sowing Delayed as Monsoon Running Late

India, the world’s second-biggest rice, sugar and cotton grower, recorded the lowest June rainfall since 2009 amid predictions for an El Nino that previously caused droughts and cut crop output.

The country got 92.4 millimeters (3.6 inches) of rain in June, or 43 percent less than the average between 1951 and 2000.

With 90 percent of India getting deficient rains, sowing of crops from rice to corn, soybeans and cotton has been delayed. An estimated 833 million people out of the 1.2 billion population depend on agriculture for their livelihood even through agriculture accounts for only 14 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product.

Consumer inflation gains in India slowed to 8.28 percent in May, a three-month low, official data show. That compares with 8.34 percent in Pakistan and 2.5 percent in China. Food makes up about 50 percent of India’s consumer-price inflation basket.

Seasonal Showers

Monsoon rainfall will be 7 percent below average this year as the El Nino emerges, the meteorological department predicts. In 2009, the last time India experienced the event, rainfall was 22 percent below the 50-year average, reducing food-grain output and more than doubling inflation from the previous year, official data show. The seasonal showers are the main source of irrigation for the nation’s 263 million farmers because about 55 percent of crop land is rain dependent.

The monsoon may advance to Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab and some more parts of Uttar Pradesh in the next three to four days, the weather bureau said on its website.

Modi’s government has pledged to tackle price gains by offloading 5 million tons of rice, about a quarter of its state stockpiles, at subsidized rates and cracking down on food hoarders. It will also help states to import pulses and cooking oils. Minimum export prices potatoes at $450 per tonne have been notified.