Rainfall deficit widened to 18.6% until June 25, compared with 17.8% the previous day, data released by the Indian Meteorological Department showed.
Eleven of the 36 states and UTs continued to witness over 50% deficiency in rainfall, with Chandigarh and Punjab facing the highest levels.
Punjab has witnessed a 77% decline in rainfall compared to the normal. Data shows rainfall deficit is a high 93% in Chandigarh. The deficit narrowed for Uttar Pradesh and Haryana on Tuesday. (see graphic)
In monsoon parlance, a normal is calculated using a long-period average of 30 years for a specific region.
A deficit is computed in percentage terms if the rainfall is below the long-period average.
In 12 states, precipitation was lower than 50% of normal during this period. These include Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Punjab, Jharkhand and Gujarat.
The reservoir level situation has worsened. For the country, reservoir levels were down 9% from normal as of June 20, compared with 8% last week.
Tamil Nadu, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh have an over 50% deficit in reservoir levels.
A recent report pointed out that climate change was taking a toll on farmers, with 80% of marginal farmers saying they had suffered an extreme weather event in the past five years.
Economists contend that the situation can hurt farm income, agricultural output and consumer inflation. Food inflation was sticky above 8% in May and will likely stay elevated in the coming months.
Higher food inflation means that rural inflation has outstripped urban inflation for nearly a year and is likely to do so in the coming months.
High rural inflation further eats into wages, which affects the rural economy.
The agricultural sector recorded 1.4% growth in FY24, compared to 4.7% in the previous year, lower than the 3.7% long-term average.
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