Little chance of monsoon revival

Though parts of Uttar Pradesh will have overcast skies, the possibility of a monsoon revival will remain bleak, the meteorological department has said.

In Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, 58 of the 71 districts have been declared drought-hit.

"Possibilities of widespread rainfall are very low. As the trough line passing from the state has turned weak, the system responsible for cloudiness and rains has also weakened," said state Met office director J.P. Gupta.

The forecast by the weather department is that the chances of a monsoon revival will remain bleak for at least five-six days more. Right now, rainfall in the state this monsoon is 57 percent below average.

In Uttar Pradesh, the monsoon season is from June 15 to Sep 30. This means the monsoon has already crossed the halfway mark. So far the monsoon has brought only 195.7 mm rain.

Western Uttar Pradesh has been the worst hit. It has had 139.6 mm of rain till July 31, compared to the average of 403.6 mm.

Eastern Uttar Pradesh has recorded 234.3 mm rainfall, which is 53 percent below the average of 484.4 mm.

Rampur district has recorded 89 percent below-average rainfall, Etah 86 percent below average, Chitrakoot 85 percent below, Mau 83 percent and Mainpuri 81 percent.

There is not a single district in the state where rainfall has been above average.

State capital Lucknow has received its lowest rainfall in two decades. From June 1 to July 31, Lucknow recorded 192.3 mm rainfall against the average of 357.9 mm for this period.

In Allahabad, rainfall so far has been 53 percent below average, and in Varanasi 48 percent below average.

Scanty rainfall in most parts of the state will hit agricultural production leading to a shortage of rice, according to a government report.

According to the report prepared by the state agriculture department, the worst hit would be paddy yield, which is expected to decline by about 60 percent this year.

Last year's paddy output was about 13.1 million tonnes. The report states that this year's output is likely to be reduced to just around six million tonnes because of scanty rainfall.

Maize production is also expected to fall from 1.15 million tonnes to 900,000 tonnes.