January to April covers the end of the growthand harvest period of dry season irrigated Boro rice, wheat, and early seasoncrops. During the monitoring, period Bangladesh suffered from below averagerainfall and temperature compared with the previous five years (-28% rainfalland -0.3°C). Crop condition was favorable in southern Rangpur, EasternRajshahi, most of Dhaka (except the central part), western Sylhet, southernKhulna and Barisal, and middle-western Chittagong, with maximum VCI ranges from0.8 to 1.0. In northern Rangpur, southern Rajshahi, central Dhaka, southernSylhet, northeastern Khulna and northern Barisal, crop condition was averagewith maximum VCI ranging between 0.5 and 0.8. At the national level, cropprogress was above average from early January to the early April in northernKhulna, central and western Sylhet, and western Rangpur. Overall, CropWatchindicators describe the crop condition as above average compared to theprevious five year’s average. In spite of below-average rainfall andtemperature over much of the country, biomass accumulation was favorable.

Figure3.7. Bangladesh crop condition,
Jan-Apr 2014

(a) Crop condition development graph based onNDVI    (b) maximum  VCI

(c) Spatial NDVI patternscompared to 5YA                                   (d) NDVI Profile