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A revival in India’s monsoon rains is helping ease dry weather that’s caused drought in more than a third of the country, aiding crops in the world’s second-biggest producer of rice, wheat and sugar, a weather official said.

Rainfall this year may be 15-to-20 percent less than the 50-year average, making it the weakest monsoon since 2002, Ajit Tyagi, director-general of India Meteorological Department, said in a phone interview today. The deficit narrowed to 21 percent last week from as high as 52 percent in June.

The worst start to the June-September monsoon season in at least eight decades caused drought in 278 of the country’s 626 districts, damaging crops of sugar cane, rice and oilseeds. Raw sugar reached a 28-year high last week on speculation India, the biggest consumer, will boost imports to bolster supplies.

“The worst is over,” Tyagi said from New Delhi. “Most parts of the country got good rains in the past 10 days,” improving prospects for winter crops of wheat and lentils.

India’s benchmark stock index advanced to the highest level in 15 months on optimism a revival in rains may lift incomes of the 742 million people living in the villages, increasing demand for consumer goods. October-delivery soybean futures dropped as much as 2.9 percent to 1,948 rupees for 100 kilograms, an eight- month low. Corn for delivery in September fell as much as 0.7 percent to 954 for 100 kilograms. Sugar prices at Vashi, the nation’s biggest wholesale market for the commodity, lost 2 percent to 3,188.35 rupees per 100 kilograms.

The monsoon will remain “active” for the next week to 10 days, helping replenish water levels in reservoirs. Farmers use this water to grow wheat and oilseeds sown between October and December. The country’s 81 main reservoirs were 45 percent full on Sept. 3, up from 42 percent a week earlier.

Winter Crops

“With the water reservoir levels looking up, the impact on winter crops may be limited,” said Sonal Varma, an economist at Nomura Securities Co. in Mumbai. “Standing crops may not be affected as much as one expected a month back”

Planting of wheat and other winter-crops will begin early this year to make up for the 10 million tons loss of rice, Farm Minister Sharad Pawar said last month. Wheat may be seeded to a record 28 million hectares this winter, Agriculture Commissioner N.B. Singh told reporters Sept. 4. The grain, used in local flat breads, makes up a third of the total grain output.

El Nino won’t impact the monsoon because the weather event hasn’t “accentuated and remains mild,” the weather bureau’s Tyagi said. The withdrawal of the rains, which typically starts in the second week of September, may be delayed this year, prolonging the rainy season, he said.

El Nino

El Nino occurs about every four to seven years and causes dry weather conditions in many Asian nations. India got below normal rains in 15 of the 36 El Nino years it had in the 1875- 2008 period, the weather office said June 24.

“It’s good news that worries of El Nino impacting rains is receding,” Nomura’s Varma said.

Rain deficit in northwest India, the country’s grain-bowl and biggest sugar cane producer, may narrow to 25-35 percent by the end of this month from as high as 50 percent in July, the weather bureau’s Tyagi said.

Central and southern states may end the monsoon season with near normal falls, he said. The central region includes Madhya Pradesh, the biggest producer of soybeans, while the southern region includes Karnataka, Kerala and Maharashtra states, top growers of sugar cane, peanuts, cotton and coffee.

The deficit in the northeastern states, the biggest tea grower, may narrow to 15-20 percent by the end of this month, from as high as 55 percent in June, Tyagi said.

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