During the monitoring period, the situation ofagriculture in India was very favorable, except for some areas in the south andnortheast. The reporting period covers mostly the Rabi (winter) wheat and ricecrop. Condition of crops was very good in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, UttarPradesh, Central Gujrat, Northern Bihar, and Maharashtra, with maximum VCIgreater than 0.8. These areas experienced very good rainfall, which was above theprevious five-year average. Condition was average in the north-eastern part ofIndia, west Bengal, the central part of Tamil Nadu, and the southern part ofKarnataka, with VCIx in ranging between 0.5 and 0.8. Crops in south andnortheast India were affected by below average rainfall compared with theprevious five years. Crop development progress was very satisfactory between earlyJanuary and end of the march. However, NDVI changes were negative after earlyApril due to the harvesting of Rabi crops. In general, crop condition was goodcompared with the previous five years' average. Biomass accumulation was veryfavorable with a 40% increase compared to the previous five-years average.

Figure3.16. India crop condition, Jan-Apr 2014

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

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