KATHMANDU: Weathermen today claimed we might have to wait for yet another week to

receive full-fledged monsoon rain.

This year’s delayed monsoon is largely attributed to the fluctuating weather condition in the Bay of Bengal and northern India.

Suman Kumar Regmi, meteorologist at the Meteorological Forecasting Division under the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, said though Eastern and Mid Nepal had received some rainfall, the monsoon bearing clouds would continue to remain inactive for yet another week.

Moreover, it could take weeks before Western Nepal received monsoon rain, meteorologist Regmi forecasted, indicating that Western Nepal may be hit hard by the prolonged drought,

which is likely to hit food production.

Monsoon normally hits Nepal by the second week of June.

“The harsh weather condition has pushed monsoon further back against the early forecast. This is a shared concern among countries in the South Asian region,” said Shiva Nepal, meteorologist at MFD.

The maize crops and paddy throughout the country are drying up as a result. The Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives last week had warned of acute food shortage in the next fiscal citing adverse weather conditions throughout the country.

The government is also learnt to be planning to come up with relief package for the drought-hit farmers.