The monsoon has been delayed by five-six days over Maharashtra and adjoining parts of peninsula.
The normal date of onset here is June 10 to 15, said N. Chattopadhyay, Deputy Director-General of Meteorology (Agricultural Meteorology), India Met Department, Pune.
On Sunday, monsoon has reached south Gujarat, remaining parts of Konkan, north interior Karnataka, Rayalaseema, entire Telangana, most of coastal Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Maharashtra, Marathawada, parts of Vidarbha, Chhattisgarh and south Odisha.
The extended range forecast suggests that there is likelihood of increase of rainfall over northern parts of west coast during the ongoing week ending June 18.
The other rain belts of the week will be southeastern coastal regions including parts of central India and also Northeast India.
TREND SO FAR
During second week (June 19-25), rainfall belt is likely to move northwards covering some more parts of central India.
Normal or above normal rainfall has occurred during last two weeks in Tamil Nadu, interior Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Madhya Maharashtra, Vidarbha, Chhattisgarh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, sub-Himalayan West Bengal, Sikkim, West Rajasthan, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir.
Normal or above normal rainfall occurred in either of the last two weeks in Saurashtra and Kutch. It was below normal rainfall over rest of the country during the last two weeks.
SOWING/CROP UPDATE
Kerala : transplanting of virippu rice. In upland areas, direct sowing of virippu rice, planting of banana.
North-Eastern States : Plenty of rainfall has allowed all operations i.e. nursery bed preparation/main field preparation for sowing of rice, groundnut and other crops.
Rice nurseries are likely to be affected in Sonitpur, Darrang and Lakhimpur districts of Assam due to flood.
Farmers are advised to stop nursery bed preparation of sali/kharif rice and sowing of green gram and black gram crop and drain out excess water from rice nursery field.
In affected areas, resowing of rice nursery and direct sowing of rice may be continued after cessation of rain and receding of flood water.
Coastal Karnataka : Sowing of finger millet (ragi) and rice.
South Interior Karnataka : Sowing of rice, ragi and red gram.
North Interior Karnataka : Sowing of kharif moong, black gram, groundnut, sunflower, maize, Bt. cotton, bajra.
Telangana : Sowing of kharif cotton, maize, groundnut, jowar, soybean and pulses.
Konkan and Goa : Sowing of rice and ragi.
Madhya Maharashtra : Nursery sowing and transplanting of kharif rice in Kolhapur region, Western Ghat region (Nashik) and Pune (western parts) and sowing of kharif jowar, soybean, cotton, green gram, black gram, redgram and sunflower.
PICK-UP OF WINDS
Naveen Mathur, Associate Director-Commodities and Currencies, Angel Broking, said that westerly monsoon winds should pick up speed given that the disruptive cyclonic storm ‘Ashobaa’ has dissipated.
Scattered rains are being observed in Telangana, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, east Madhya Pradesh and isolated rainfall activity is being observed over Gujarat and Rajasthan.
In South Interior Karnataka, land preparation is going on for sowing of kharif red gram, groundnut, maize and sunflower.
In Madhya Maharashtra, Marathwada and Vidarbha, conditions are ideal for sowing of kharif soybean, cotton, jowar, green gram, sunflower and redgram.
In Andhra Pradesh, sowing has started for irrigated cotton, okra and cluster beans and land preparation for irrigated groundnut, castor and maize in the scarce rainfall zone.
Land preparation for sowing of maize, pulses and cotton should continue the in Krishna-Godavari zone.
In West Bengal, land preparation for sowing of soyabean is on in the hill zone after current spells of heavy rain.