Monsoon rains have arrived in India's southeastern state of Kerala three days late, the Meteorological Department said. The rains typically begin on June 1 and are critical to India's economic health, enabling farmers to plant cotton, soybeans, sugarcane, rice, and corn.

India's economy, Asia's third-largest valued at $4 trillion, is heavily dependent on the monsoon season, which delivers about 70 percent of the rainfall needed for a good harvest. Beyond agriculture, the rains also help replenish aquifers and reservoirs across the country.

The India Meteorological Department said in a statement on Thursday that "conditions are favourable for further advance of southwest monsoon" into more areas like the central Arabian Sea, Goa, parts of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu over the next two to three days.

Concerns over crops, food prices, and economic growth were heightened last month when the department warned that an El Niño-weakened monsoon in 2026 could deliver the driest season in 11 years.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said there is an 80 percent likelihood of an El Niño event from June to August. According to the WMO, the climate phenomenon, which warms surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean, typically "increases global temperatures and drives more extreme weather and rainfall patterns".

On Tuesday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said El Niño is "arriving on our doorstep". "The world must treat it as the urgent climate warning it is. El Niño conditions will pour fuel on the fire of a warming world," he warned in a video message.

Source: www.aljazeera.com