After remaining subdued in the first few weeks of August, the southwest monsoon turned round on August 20, bringing abundant rainfall to most parts of the country and speeding up the recharging of reservoirs.
Barring Kerala and north-interior Karnataka, all other parts of the country have now received normal to excess rainfall.
The overall monsoon rainfall since the beginning of the season on June 1, which was 2 per cent above normal till August 20, stood at 3 per cent above normal by August 27.
The rainfall has picked up since then, forcing farmers in many regions to pray for a spell of sunshine to avert damage to crops requiring less water.
The prolonged wet spell is also reported to have led to pest build-up in some places, though pests and diseases have not yet started causing economic losses.
A nearly 7 per cent above-normal precipitation since August 20 has helped Jammu and Kashmir and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to come out of the deficient rainfall bracket.
Consequently, the number of sub-divisions receiving deficient rainfall -- that is 20 per cent below normal --has come down from four to two.
According to the India Meteorological Department, the cumulative rainfall between June 1 and August 27 was 716.3 mm, 3 per cent higher than the normal 698.8 mm.
The total rainfall during the four-month monsoon season, ending September 30, is normally 880 mm.
Information collected by the Central Water Commission from the country's 71 major reservoirs indicates that the total water storage on August 29 was 64.86 billion cubic metres, up 6 per cent from the previous week's 57.35 BCM.
This is now close to half of the full reservoir level of 131.28 BCM. It is about 18 per cent higher than the corresponding position last year, though this is about 22 per cent short of the past 10 years' average.
Two reservoirs -- Somasila in Andhra Pradesh and Bhima in Maharashtra -- still do not have any usable water. Fortunately, most water reservoirs in the chronically arid Rajasthan are overflowing.
Crop sowing reports from states indicate that paddy acreage has risen appreciably in the past one week, from 28.1 million hectares on August 25 to 32 million hectares on September 1.
Therefore, nearly 80 per cent of the normal kharif rice acreage of 40.6 million hectares has been covered.
Paddy planting in the south is still in progress, though it is nearly halfway through in the north, where it is expected to start maturing around the beginning of October.
The latest reports also indicate that the area under sugarcane has touched the normal level of 4.3 million hectares. It was earlier estimated to be marginally below normal. The sowing of this crop is virtually over.
The announcement of the Rs 678 crore (Rs 6.78 billion) package for ensuring higher cane prices to growers in the north and an indication of a similar financial package for other cane-growing states is believed to have led to some additional, albeit belated, planting of sugarcane.
The area under pulses is now estimated to have risen to 11.8 million hectares, about 13.5 per cent above the normal 10.4 million hectares. Tur and arhar, the main kharif pulses, have been sown on an additional 100,000 hectares.
Kharif oilseeds are still being sown, though soyabean planting is virtually over on an estimated area of 6.8 million hectares, against the normal 6.3 million hectares.
However, there are reports of emergence of pests like girdle beetle, semilooper, heliothis and some others in soyabean and cotton crops.
The situation is still not beyond control, though farmers have been advised to spray pesticides when the pest population tends to rise beyond the economic threshold.
