The south-west monsoon hit India's southern Kerala coast on Sunday, about four days later than normal, but the delay is not likely to have any bad impact on crops, weather officials and traders said. "The monsoon today advanced over southern parts of Kerala and some parts of Tamil Nadu and the south Arabian Sea," A.B. Mazumdar, director of the Meteorological Department's weather forecasting centre said, adding heavy rains were likely.
The arrival of the monsoon, the lifeblood of India's agriculture sector, is keenly watched as two-thirds of the billion-plus population earn a living from the sector, which generates about a quarter of gross domestic product.
Almost two-thirds of farmland rely on the monsoon for water.
It normally arrives on June 1 but the weather bureau had forecast it could be delayed up to a week. The bureau forecast a normal monsoon with 98 percent of long-term average rains.
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