Triticeae crops, including wheat and barley, are the main cereal crops of Australia. According to the phenology map, they are usually planted from May to July and harvested from October to January. The current reporting period covers the end of the last harvesting season only. Therefore, there were no crops in the field for most of the time during this reporting period, which limits the relevance of NDVI-based indicators.

The agro-climatic indicators, which were moderate overall, show above-average rainfall (RAIN, +17%), whereas temperature (TEMP, -0.3°C) and sunshine (RADPAR, -2%) were slightly below average. This led to an average biomass accumulation potential (-1%). Sufficient rainfall has created favorable soil moisture conditions for the planting of wheat and barley in the coming months. CALF also increased by 34% compared with the recent five-year average, but this does not necessarily indicate an increase of the planted area at this stage.

Spatially, the conditions in the four main wheat production states can be divided into two groups. Group one includes southern states of New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria, which is characterized by abundant rainfall (NSW, +59%; SOU, +29%; VCT, +57%), cool temperature (NSW, -0.6°C; SOU, -1.2°C; VCT, -1.0°C), low sunshine (NSW, -5%; SOU, -5%; VCT, -9%), and consequently negative biomass (NSW, -3%; SOU, -3%; VCT, -7%). Group two includes Western Australia. It experienced opposite conditions (RAIN, -28%; TEMP, +0.2°C; RADPAR, 0%; BIOMSS, +5%). The maximum VCI was 0.89 all over the country, except for group two (below 0.5).

Though the NDVI in the reporting period was gradually recovering from the below-average values caused by the prolonged drought, the NDVI clusters show that there was still 60.7% of the cropland with below-average NDVI in JFMA months. These areas were mostly located in group two (Western Australia) again, while the others were largely above average starting in March.

Regional analysis

This analysis adopts five agro-ecological regions for Australia, namely the Arid and Semi-arid Zone (marked as 18 in NDVI clustering map), Southeastern Wheat Zone (19), Subhumid Subtropical Zone (20), Southwestern Wheat Zone (21), Wet Temperate and Subtropical Zone (22).

Similar to the main production states analysis, the agro-climatic and agronomic indicators of these five regions can be also assigned into two groups. Group 1 includes region Arid and Semi-arid Zone and Southwestern Wheat Zone. This group had a below average rainfall (-20%, -33%), slightly warmer temperatures (+0.8°C, +0.1°C) as well as slightly higher or average sunshine (+4%, -0%). The agro-climatic indicators result in a tiny increase of or average potential biomass (+0%, +6%). Both the CALF (-2%, -51%) and VCIx (0.73, 0.42) in this group are lower than the other regions.

The other 3 regions (Southeastern Wheat Zone, Subhumid Subtropical Zone, Wet Temperate and Subtropical Zone) experienced similar conditions. Both the agro-climatic and agronomic indicators in this group 2 are opposite to group 1, including above-average rainfall (+62%, +43%, +15%), slightly below-average temperature (-1.0°C, -0.1°C, -0.0%) as well as sunshine (-7%, -3%, -1%). The potential biomass in these 3 regions was also below average (-4%, -1%, -4%). The CALF and VCIx were both better than group 1, which were higher (+89%, +54%, +7%), and larger than 1 (1.06, 1.08, 1.05) respectively.

Overall, the agro-climatic indicators in the reporting period, especially the favorable rainfall are beneficial for the following wheat planting, except for Western Australia. CropWatch will keep on monitoring the crop conditions in the next bulletin.

Figure 3.6. Australia crop condition, January 2020 - April 2020

(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 and semiarid zone (left) and Southeastern wheat area (right))

(g) Crop condition development graph based on NDVI (Subhumid subtropical zone (left) and Southwestern wheat area (right))

(h) Crop condition development graph based on NDVI (Wet temperate and subtropical zone)

(i) Time series rainfall profile (left) and temperature profile (right))