During the April-July monitoring period, winter wheat reaches maturity (harvest or about harvest), while summer crops (rice and maize) are in their growing season. The cumulative rainfall reached 7 mm, a seasonably low  value for Egyptian conditions. The average temperature reached 23.8 °C (0.3 °C up), and the photosynthetically active radiation was 1573 MJ/m2 (1% down). The NDVI spatial pattern shows that 25.9% of the cultivated area had above the 5-year average crop condition, 50.9% fluctuated around the 5-year average and 23.2% were below. The best Vegetation Condition Index (VCIx) map shows that the condition of the current crops, mainly wheat, maize, and rice, is good. This agrees with the whole country VCIx value (0.89). CALF exceeded the 5-years average by 7%. Overall, the crop condition is favorable.

Regional Analysis

Based on crop planting systems, climate zones and topographical conditions, Egypt can be divided into three agro-ecological zones (AEZ), two of which are suitable for crop cultivation, namely the Nile Delta and the southern coast of the Mediterranean and the Nile Valley. In the Nile Delta and Mediterranean coast the average rainfall was 10mm,  while in the Nile Valley recorded only 1 mm. Since virtually all crops in Egypt are irrigated agriculture, the impact of precipitation on crop yield is limited but additional precipitation is nevertheless always useful. Although the cumulative photosynthetically active radiation in both regions was slightly below the average (-1%), BIOMSS fell 30% increased by 58% for the first and second regions respectively. The NDVI development graph shows that crop condition fluctuated about the average in the first AEZ from April to May; in the second zone, it was first close to average but fell below by the end of the season.

Egypt's crop condition, April ‐July 2019.

(a). Phenology of major crops

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

(d) Rainfall Index                                              (e) Temperature Index 

(f) Spatial NDVI patterns compared to 5YA (g) NDVI profiles

(k) Crop condition development graph based on NDVI (Nile Delta (left) and Nile Valley (right))

Egypt’s agronomic indicators by sub-national regions, current season's values and departure from 15YA, April-July 2019.