Cropcondition in Brazil was generally average from January to July. Currently, the harvestingof maize, rice, and soybean and the planting of wheat have been completed. FromApril to July 2014, above average (5YA) precipitation (RAIN) and highertemperature (TEMP) dominated most of Brazil, resulting in well above average BIOMSSfor most states except Ceara, São Paulo, and Minas Gerais. The first two arethe only two states that experienced a shortage of rainfall, while Minas Geraissuffered from persistent high temperature. The maximum VCI map confirms thatcrop condition in São Paulo and Minas Gerais was not as good as other regionsin Brazil, but still above the five-year average. Considering the spatialpatterns of NDVI profiles, the south, central-west, and north-east regions ofthe country all experienced average to favorable conditions since April, whilecrop condition in the north and south-east, especially in São Paulo and MinasGerais, was well below average from February to July. This is confirmed by theVCIx map. Generally, at the national scale, the crop condition developmentgraph indicates the crop condition from April to July was slightly above lastyear and the five-year average. The rapid decrease of the NDVI profile in the cropcondition development graph shows the advanced harvesting progress. CropWatchputs the yield for the country’s second maize crop at 1.5% up from last yearand estimates the average maize yield in 2014 to be comparable with 2013. (Seealso table B.3 in Annex B).

(a) Cropcondition development graph based on NDVI    (b) Maxium VCI