Monsoon rain reaches Kerala 3 days late but on time to save Indian harvests

Monsoon rains have arrived in India’s southeastern state of Kerala three days late, the Meteorological Department says.

The rains typically arrive on June 1 and are critical to India’s economic health, enabling farmers to plant cotton, soya beans, sugarcane, rice and corn.

India’s economy, which is Asia’s third largest, is valued at $4 trillion and is heavily dependent on the monsoon season, which delivers about 70 percent of the rainfall needed for a good harvest.

Beyond agriculture, the rains also help replenish aquifers and reservoirs across the country.

India’s Meteorological Department said in a statement on Thursday that the “conditions are favourable for further advance of southwest monsoon” into more areas like the central Arabian Sea, Goa, some parts of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu over the next two to three days.

Concerns over crops, food prices and economic growth were heightened last month when the Meteorological Department warned that an El Nino-weakened monsoon in 2026 could deliver the driest season the country has seen in 11 years.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said there is an 80 percent likelihood of an El Nino event from June to August.

According to the WMO, the climate phenomenon, which warms surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean, typically “increases global temperatures and drives more extreme weather and rainfall patterns”.

On Tuesday, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said El Nino is “arriving on our doorstep”.

“The world must treat it as the urgent climate warning it is. El Nino conditions will pour fuel on the fire of a warming world,” he warned  in a video message.