National Analysis

Maize and rice were in the sowing and growing season while wheat was harvested in October.

Compared with average rainfall was lower (RAIN -21%) and both temperature and sunshine were up (TEMP 1.4°C, RADPAR 0.3%), marginally so for RADPAR. Mostly due to the drop in precipitation, BIOMASS fell 15% below average. At end of October and the beginning of November, the NDVI development graph shows that crop condition was below the 5 years average and below the corresponding values during the previous years. CALF was about average (1% below the 5YA) and the maximum VCI reached 0.82.

NDVI patterns indicate that a large section of the country (35% of cropped areas), mostly in the Southern regions, experienced below average crop condition. The least favorable condition was  recorded at the end of December when about 50% of crop areas were below the 5 years average. Favorable crop condition (maximum VCI between 0.8 and 1.0) was observed in the provinces of Zaire, Uige, Cuanza Norte and Cuanza Sul. In general, however, the country suffered below average crop condition.

Regional Analysis

Considering the cropping systems, climatic zones and, and topographic conditions, Angola is divided into five agro‐ecological zones (AEZs): Sub-humid, Humid, Arid, Semi-arid and Desert.

All ago-ecological regions suffered a shortage of rain, but temperature and RADPAR were above average. The most significant decrease in rain was observed in the Arid and Semi-arid zones (RAIN -40% and- 37%, respectively). The Desert zone showed a very large increase in temperature and radiation over the average (TEMP +2.6°C and RADPAR +13%). Biomass and the cropped arable land fraction CALF fell in all regions relative to the average of past 5 years. Again, the most anomalous situations occur in the Arid zone and Semi-arid zones, where BIOMSS decreased 28% (in both regions), and the largest CALF decrease (of about 20%) was observed in the arid zone. The NDVI development graphs for this period indicates that the condition of crops was unfavorable in all agro-ecological zones, especially during the period between December and January.

Figure 3.7. Angola’s crop condition, October 2018 – January 2019

(a) Phenology of major crops

(b) Crop condition development graph based on NDVI     (c) Maximum VCI

(d) Spatial NDVI patterns compared to 5YA     (e) NDVI profiles 

(f) Crop condition development graph based on NDVI - Arid zone (g) Crop condition development graph based on NDVI - Desert zone

(h) Crop condition development graph based on NDVI - Humid zone (i) Crop condition development graph based on NDVI - Semi-arid zone

(j) Crop condition development graph based on NDVI - Sub-humid zone

Table 3.4. Angola agroclimatic indicators by sub-national regions, current season's values and departurefrom 15YA, October 2018 – January 2019

Table 3.5. Angola agronomic indicators by sub-national regions, current season's values and departure from 5YA, October 2018 – January 2019