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Monsoon rains arrive ahead of schedule

India's monsoon rains, key to the country's economy, arrived ahead of schedule in the southern coast of the country on Wednesday, a weather official said.

"Today, monsoon has hit over Kerala," a weather official in southern India, who did not want to be identified, told Reuters by phone.

He said Trivandrum, capital of Kerala, and other parts of the coastal state had experienced heavy rains since Tuesday.

"It is cloudy and monsoonish," he said adding that five centimetres of rainfall had been recorded in some places.

India's weather office said on Saturday it expected the monsoon to be normal in 2002, making it the fourteenth successive monsoon season in succession.

Large parts of India are suffering the most severe heatwave in four years and more than 1,000 people have died because of extreme heat in Andhra Pradesh.

The rains usually bring cooler weather and are vital for India's agricultural sector, which accounts for 25 per cent of gross domestic product and provides employment for 70 per cent of one billion people.

India Meteorological Department director-general R R Kelkar said last week the four-month monsoon would start in Kerala around its usual date of June 1.

But he warned there was a likelihood of El Nino conditions developing, which could have an adverse impact on the rains.

El Nino is a weather phenomenon which creates dry weather conditions because of temperature changes in the Pacific region.

The IMD defines a monsoon as normal if overall rainfall is 10 per cent above or below the long term average.

Traders said a normal monsoon would encourage farmers to expand cultivation, but the timing and distribution of the rain holds the key.

The country receives about 80 per cent of its rainfall from the southwest monsoon. Sixty per cent of cultivable land in the country of one billion people is unirrigated.

Rains are crucial for farmers of Madhya Pradesh, which accounts for more than 75 per cent of the country's soybean output; Gujarat, which accounts for 35 per cent of groundnut output and 25-30 per cent of cotton output; and the rice-growing states of Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

Punjab and Haryana, which produce large amounts of wheat and rice, have adequate irrigation facilities.

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