Crop condition in Argentina was generallyfavorable over the first four months in 2014. Currently, maize and soybean arebeing harvested in the country. According to HGCA, 70% of soybean and one thirdof maize had been harvested by May 22. Accumulated biomass from January toApril in 2014 is 21% higher than the last five-year average because of 33%above normal precipitation. At the provincial level, only Salta and Tucuman showbelow average biomass. Temperature and PAR were slightly below the five-yearaverage. Altogether climatic conditions were conducive to crop development andgrain filling, although persistently high temperatures in January and Februarydominated in the main production regions. As shown by the NDVI profiles, cropcondition is either above or at the five-year average level, except for southwestern Buenos Aries to southern Córdoba and scattered regions in Salta. Belownormal NDVI in those regions is observed from January to mid-March due to thehot weather. The low maximum VCI in the same regions also confirms the impactof the persistent high temperature on crop development. Since early April,above-average precipitation has been beneficial for crops and crop condition ischanging to average condition. Generally, the national NDVI development graphshows a peak well above both last year and the previous five-year average (and reachingthe five-year maximum level), indicating above average soybean and maize cropyield expectations in Argentina. The recent above-average precipitation boostssoil moisture and gives a favorable prospects for planting of the 2014 winterwheat. Farmers’ planting intentions for wheat indicate an increase in areaplanted, from last year’s level to close to 4 million hectares, mainly inresponse to high domestic wheat prices. Due to mostly average conditions,Argentina is in for an average maize crop but an estimated 2.5% production increasein soybean, resulting from large inter-provincial differences as shown in tableB.2 in Annex B.

          (a) Maximum VCI                                    (b) Spatial NDVI patternscompared to 5YA 

                                                          (d) Crop condition development graph based onNDVI

(c) NDVI profiles