India's monsoon, the annual downpour crucial to farmers and national economic growth, hit the southwestern coastal state of Kerala on Monday with hopes high for better rains than last year.

"The monsoon has arrived and our forecast indicates that rainfall will be normal across the country this year," B. K Bandyopadhyay, a senior official at the Indian Meteorological Department in New Delhi, told AFP.

The four-month monsoon season began one day ahead of its traditional start date of June 1, and will sweep across the country from the south and east to cover the country by mid-July and continue until September.

Weather conditions are favourable for further advance of the rains during the next 24 hours, Bandyopadhyay said.

The Indian government is hoping for a good monsoon to tame soaring food prices after last year's drought, the worst in 37 years, brought poor harvests and despair to farmers.

The rains are key to rural areas, where two-thirds of the 1.2 billion population live.

Despite its flagship IT and outsourcing sector, India's economy remains heavily dependent on agriculture.

India is the world's second-biggest producer of rice, wheat and sugarcane.

Summer crops, such as rice, sugar cane, cotton and oil seeds, are sown in July and harvested from October.