This monitoring period coversthe harvesting stage of winter wheat and barley. Maize and rice have been sowedand are now growing. Generally, crop condition was favorable from April toJuly. Compared with the past thirteen-year average level, TEMP shows a slight increase(0.2%), while RAIN and RADPAR decreased more significantly (-7% and -2°Crespectively). From June to July, crop condition gradually deteriorated insouth and central Pakistan due to a drop in rainfall, but spatial NDVI patternsand clusters indicate that crop condition was still better than during both theprevious year and the recent five-year average. Rice is the main crop inPakistan. Most is planted in the provinces of Punjab and Sindh, representing91% of the national planting area and 88% of national production. The highmaximum VCI in two provinces confirms good crop condition. Currently, allavailable indicators concur to rank the crop as average or above throughout thecountry.

Figure 3.23. Pakistan crop condition,April-July 2014

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