The southwest monsoon hit the Kerala coast on Thursday, two days after its normal date and three days after it was initially forecast to reach India.

The crucial monsoon season is expected to deliver a slightly above-normal rainfall at 101% of its long-performing average this year with even distribution across core agricultural areas, the weather office had said earlier.

This would cheer the agricultural sector in the country, which directly or indirectly employs two-thirds of the country’s workforce. The agriculture ministry has set a record target of 305.44 million tonnes of food grain production for this year’s harvest.

Although Kerala has been receiving moderate rainfall for a few days, the India Meteorological Department's criteria of 60% of the 14 stations receiving moderate rain for two consecutive days had not been met till Thursday.

Rainfall this year will also be well distributed across the country, with only Kerala and the northeastern region forecast to get below-normal rainfall, the IMD said.

Monsoon rainfall is likely to be normal across the country throughout June, the IMD said in its forecast. This is crucial as June is often the sowing month for most of the country’s water-intensive crops such as rice, sugarcane,cotton and soya bean.

The probability of a normal or above-normal monsoon is 74%. This would mark the third consecutive year of above-normal rainfall in India, after10% excess in 2019 and 9% excess in 2020.