The crops in Germany show generally good andabove average condition during the period between January and April in 2014.Currently, winter wheat and winter barley are in the vegetative stages andmaize is being planted; according to HGCA, 90% maize has been planted by May 9.The CropWatch agroclimatic indices indicate globally warmer than averageweather and close to normal PAR at the national scale. These observations areconsistent with the warmer than usual weather in Europe recorded in theJRC/MARS bulletin and in the NCDC report on climate anomalies. At the nationallevel, biomass decreased by 17% compared to the five-year average due to lowrains (-24%). As shown by the NDVI profiles, the national NDVI values were wellabove average and even higher than the five-year maximum between January andApril (except for a sharp drop at the begin of January and April ). A sharp dropof NDVI in January is mostly occurring in Niedersachsen andMecklenburg-Vorpommern. The maximum VCI map presents good crop conditioneverywhere except in the northwest of Niedersachsen, which confirmed by theNDVI profiles.

Figure 3.10. Germany crop condition, Jan-Apr 2014
(a) Maximum VCI

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

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