Wheat and barley, the main cereal crops of Australia, are usually planted from May to July and harvested from October to January. The monitored period thus covers only the end of the last harvesting season with no crops in the field for most of the reporting period. Agro-climatic indicators show below average conditions: RAIN -17%, TEMP +0.5°C, RADPAR 4%. As a result, the biomass accumulation potential shows a decrease of 21% compared with last 15 years. Negative departures of rain were observed in all the states: New South Wales: -16%, South Australia: -24%, Victoria: -33%, and Western Australia: -34%, leading to unfavorable soil moisture conditions for the planting of wheat and barley in the coming months. The maximum VCI is 0.42 all over the region, except for southeastern Queensland (above 0.8), where cotton has reached maturity. Although CALF decreased by 38 percentage points compared with the recent five-year average, this does not necessarily indicate a reduction of the planted area at this stage of the season.

Regional analysis

This analysis adopts five agro-ecological regions for Australia, namely the Southeastern Wheat Zone, Southwestern Wheat Zone, Arid and Semi-arid Zone, Wet Temperate and Subtropical Zone, and Subhumid Subtropical Zone.

Compared with the last 15 year average, the rainfall for these 5 sub-regions above was as follows: -23%, -39%, -13%, -3% and -34% respectively. Low rainfall, especially for the Southwestern Wheat Zone and Subhumid Subtropical Zone, will possibly have some negative impact on the soil moisture, probably less so in the Wet Temperate and Subtropical Zone which had the least negative departure of rainfall below average. The temperature was above average in Southeastern Wheat Zone, Wet Temperate and Subtropical Zone, and Subhumid Subtropical Zone with 0.8℃, 0.5℃, and 1.2℃, while it was close to average or slightly below for the Arid and Semi-arid Zone and the Southwestern Wheat Zone (0.8℃ drop). RADPAR exceeded average for the 5 sub-regions by, repsctively,  4%, 5%, 3%, 3%, and 7%. As a result, the potential accumulated biomass shows values of -20%, -30%, -6%, -13% and -30%, compared with average.

Due to low rainfall and high temperature and RADPAR, the agroclimatic conditions in Australia have been below average so far,  spectaculalrly so when considering record low NDVI curves. Hopefully irrigation can make up for the dry conditions in the coming planting season of wheat and barley. CropWatch will keep on monitoring the crop condition in the next bulletin.

Figure 3.6. Australia crop condition, January 2019-April 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 (Southeastern wheat zone (left) and Southwestern wheat zone (right))

(g)Crop condition development graph based on NDVI (Arid and semi-arid zone (left) and Wet temperate and subtropical zone (right))

(h)Crop condition development graph based on NDVI (Subhumid subtropical zone)

Table 3.5.Australia agroclimatic indicators by sub-national regions, current season's values and departure from 15YA, January 2019-April 2019

Table 3.6.Australia agronomic indicators by sub-national regions, current season's values and departure from 15YA/5YA, January 2019-April 2019