LUCKNOW, India — Amarnath Sharma has waited weeks for rain to soak his parched rice paddies so that he can start planting. He is one of millions of farmers across India who are hoping and praying for elusive monsoon showers.
But their hopes are being dashed this season: India’s Meteorological Department said it expects the country to get at least 10 percent less rain this year than normal during the June-to-September monsoon.
The shortfall also is expected to swell electricity demand in a power-starved nation as farmers turn to irrigation pumps to keep their fields watered. Earlier this week, three of India’s regional electricity grids failed for hours in a blackout that affected a swath of the country with about 620 million people.
In a statement late Thursday, the department said rains between June and Aug. 1 have been 19 percent below normal. The remaining August-to-September monsoon will also be weak because of warming of the central Pacific Ocean, known as the El Niño, the agency said.
Several Indian states have declared near-drought conditions and are demanding extra federal funds or announcing large subsidies to help farmers buy diesel fuel to generate electricity to irrigate their fields.
Officials in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh — India’s most populous — fear that a drought is around the corner.
Sharma, a rice farmer in the state, said if it doesn’t rain in the next few days he will have to forgo a rice crop this year.
‘‘At this time of the year we generally make preparations to tackle floods but paucity of rain has raised an apprehension about drought engulfing the major part of the state,’’ Alok Ranjan, state agriculture production commissioner, told the Associated Press in the state capital, Lucknow, on Friday.
In the western state of Gujarat, Bharat, who goes by one name, has waited a long time for his thirsty fields to be quenched.
‘‘We are tired of looking at the sky, but the rain just doesn’t fall,’’ he said.
In the country’s eastern state of Bihar, at least eight out of 38 districts have rain levels 70 percent below normal, said Anil Kumar Jha, the deputy director of the state’s Agriculture Department.
Jha said the state is spending $112 million on subsidizing diesel so farmers could generate electricity to draw up ground water.
Several other states — Haryana and Punjab in the north, Maharashtra in the west, and Karnataka in the south — have recorded poor rainfall. These states grow a large amount of the country’s rice, wheat, oil seeds, and cereals.
A poor monsoon can worsen inflation of food prices.
‘‘If the government doesn’t help us we will die of hunger. There’s no water to drink and no food to eat,’’ said Bharat.