Tryst with the monsoon

Agriculture can't remain hostage to the vagaries of the southwest monsoon

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INDIA'S COUNTRYSIDE EAGERLY awaits the onset of the southwest monsoon which has a crucial bearing on crop output during the kharif or summer season. Although this highly complex, dynamic system arrives with unfailing regularity, there is no telling exactly when it will set in, or for that matter its behaviour over the season, which can defeat the best forecasts. The monsoon set in over Kerala on May 24, eight days before its normal date of June 1 with a standard deviation of 7 days. This is the earliest date since 2009 when it entered Kerala on May 23. To be sure, it has also been delayed till June 8 in 2016, 2019, and 2023.