Huanghuaihai is part of the North China Plain and cultivates winter wheat and summer maize in rotation as its main crops. The bulletin monitored crop condition during January to April when the winter wheat started to revive and grow, with the harvest taking place in mid-June. According to the crop condition development graph based on NDVI, the crop condition of winter wheat was average during most of the monitoring period, with a sight drop in February. The maximum VCI value was 0.91 which confirms the good crop condition. As assessed by CropWatch indicators, the agro-climatic and agronomic conditions were generally favorable. Compared to average, the precipitation (RAIN) increased greatly by 34% and the temperature (TEMP) rose slightly (+0.2℃), while the radiation (RADPAR) showed a reduction of 4%. The favorable growing environment contributed to a significant increase of 25% in potential biomass compared to average. The cropped arable land fraction (CALF) was on 5-year average. 

The whole region displayed NDVI values that are below but close to average. As shown by NDVI clusters and profiles, north of Jiangsu and some clustered areas displayed above-average values, which is about 15.1% of the region. 38.8% of cropland across Heibei and Shandong Provinces showed negative departures during late January and early February, while on average at other times. For other areas of the region, the crop condition was below average to varying degrees, especially in the East of Henan and North of Anhui. The biomass departure map confirms the distribution of NDVI clusters, with increases in the North of the region and decreases in south.

Figure 4.10. Crop condition China Huanghuaihai, January - April 2019

(a) Crop condition development graph based on NDVI

(b) Spatial NDVI patterns compared to 5YA     (c) NDVIprofiles

(d) Maximum VCI

(e) Biomass departure