The southwest monsoon has moved into 80 per cent of India after a delayed start and is likely to cover the entire country by mid-July.

The monsoon arrived on June 5, three days behind schedule, but a weather official said India had received six per cent more rainfall than normal since then up to June 25. Twenty-nine of 36 weather divisions had received normal or excess rainfall.

"The monsoon has been progressing quite well and is likely to cover the entire country by July 15," N Jayanthi, deputy director general of weather forecasting at the India Meteorological Department, told Reuters from Pune.

The northeast and west coast will get heavy rainfall in the next three to four days, while other areas will receive moderate rain in that period, she said.

The monsoon normally moves in first from the Arabian Sea, hitting Kerala on June 1. But this year, the Bay of Bengal branch, which usually hits the northeast a couple of days later, was more active.

Indian agriculture depends heavily on the monsoon as only about a third of the country is irrigated.

The farm sector, in turn, drives demand in Asia's third largest economy, accounting for a quarter of gross domestic product and providing livelihood to around 70 per cent of the country's more than 1 billion people.

The key cotton and groundnut growing states of Maharashtra and Gujarat in the west and the soyabean growing state of Madhya Pradesh in central India have received good rainfall in the past few days, said S R Kalsi, a senior weather official in New Delhi.

"About 85 per cent of groundnut sowing has been completed in Gujarat and the rest will be over in about a week," said B V Patel, president of the Solvent Extractors' Association of India.

Sowing of cotton has been progressing in Maharashtra and Gujarat and will be completed by mid-July, said Sushil Shah, a cotton trader.

The weather office has predicted that rainfall during this year's monsoon will be normal, unlike last year, when the country suffered its worst drought in 15 years.

Officials said that the devastating El Nino weather pattern that triggered last year's drought is nearly over.

Last year, the monsoon arrived on the southern coast on schedule. But July, a vital month for farmers, was dry, damaging oilseed and grain crops in western and central India.

With additional reporting by Hari Ramachandran in New Delhi.

Monsoon in India: The complete coverage