India: Patchy Northeast Monsoon Impacts Rabi Planting

Cumulative rainfall during India's 2023 northeast monsoon was nine percent lower than the fifty-year average, according to India’s Meteorological Department (IMD), spurred by a delay in onset of nearly 20 days. As a result, reservoir storage levels are observed below the ten-year average at sixty percent capacity, and the pace of planting for rabi 2023/24 season is three percent lower than the five-year average, with significant reduction in acreage for pulses.