December is the main harvesting season for all "meher" crops in Ethiopia, although many of them mature earlier and stay in the field until labor availability permits their harvest. This report thus covers the late stages of the 2013 crops. The national environmental indices (October to January) are average for temperature and PAR but above average for rainfall (+30 percent) and biomass accumulation(about +20 percent over both the last decade and the last five years). Vegetation condition indices are mostly high or very high (>0.8) confirming the overall positive outcome of the 2013 season, except in limited areas bordering the semi-arid Afar, or east SNPP and adjacent areas in centra Oromia. The biomass departure map confirms that some areas had close to average outcomes, but large portions of the country were above.

(a) crop production based NDVI data