The South and Southeast Asia MPZ (evenafter excluding the Maritime Southeast Asia) covers a heterogeneous region. Riceis the dominant crop in the whole MPZ, while wheat and maize are grown mostly inIndia and Myanmar. Figure 2.4 shows relevant maps and graphs for this MPZ.

Allcountries in the region cultivate, in one way or another, "summercrops" (Kharif), harvested around the end of the year (with a plantingdate that varies from February to June) and winter "crops" (Rabi),planted between September and December for harvesting from May to August,depending on cycle length, farming practices, and, to a large extent, localtraditions. For all the countries in the MPZ, the reporting period thusincludes harvests as well as planting or crops in vegetative stage. Most of thecropped areas are distributed in India, Bangladesh, the dry zone of Myanmar,the Red River delta and the Mekong delta in Vietnam, the Tonle Sap region, andcentral and northeast Thailand.

According to the analysis ofenvironmental indices, rainfall was almost 30 percent over both the last fiveyears’ average and the twelve-year average, resulting in a biomass accumulationof about 20 percent above the last decade. Of the six MPZs monitored byCropWatch, South and Southeast Asia displays the highest biomass departure overthe monitoring period, compared with both the last five years (19 percent) andthe twelve-year period (22 percent).

DuringOctober to January, uncultivated arable land concerned 2.5 percent of the landpixels, 2.1 percent points down from the average of the previous five years.The uncropped areas are located mostly in north Rajasthan in India.

VHIdepartures from the twelve-year reference period (2001-2013) show four verydistinct types of behavior: (i) Average conditions in about 34 percent of thearea's pixels, indicated by dark green and red colors. The pattern occurs innorthern central India and in southern India. The absence of fluctuations istypical of harvested crops. (2) Mostly above average conditions, increasingrapidly in October then decreasing in January, covering about 23 percent of theareas (in blue). This corresponds to winter crops, many of them irrigated innortheast India. (iii) Decreasing condition in about 18 percent of pixels;condition decreased almost linearly from October, followed by a slightimprovement at the end of January, occurring mostly in north-east India rainfedwinter crops. (iv) Well below average conditions during most of the period andrecovering in January, while staying below average (25 percent of pixels). Thisbehavior occurs in a patchy pattern mostly intermixed with (i) and (iii) overmuch of the eastern half of the MPZ; it is tempting to associate the thirdpattern with excess water, including the impact of the two October cyclonesPhailin and Nari (see also section 5.1).In fact, India, Bangladesh, and Myanmar all recorded significantly aboveaverage rainfall (+56 percent, +46 percent, +26 percent, respectively), whilethe other countries in the MPZ are closer to average.

MaximumVCI values are usually high in most of the north western quadrant of India, inclose agreement with the VHI clusters and clearly denote satisfactory rabi cropcondition. In the south and east and in Bangladesh, there is a largerproportion of low values; the same occurs in the eastern half of the MPZ,indicating mixed crop condition, or sometimes distinctly poor, as in Red Riverdelta of northern Vietnam.

Figure 2.4. South and Southeast AsiaMPZ: Farming intensity and stress