The Huanghuaihai region is located in the North China Plain, where winter wheat - summer maize double cropping is the major cropping practice. The monitoring period of this report is from January to April, during which the winter wheat progressed from winter dormancy to the flowering stage. Harvest will be completed in mid-June. The NDVI-based crop growth profile shows that the growth of winter wheat was generally above average until March, and slightly lower than the average in April. The maximum vegetation condition index (VCIx) was 0.83 indicating that the crops were in average conditions. As assessed by CropWatch indicators, the agro-climatic and agronomic conditions were generally favorable. Compared to average, the precipitation (RAIN) increased greatly by 51% and the temperature (TEMP) rose slightly (+1.2℃), while the radiation (RADPAR) showed a reduction of 4%. The low radiation potentially lowered the biomass by 9% compared with 15YA but the significant above average rainfall might benefit crops if further weather are dominated by sunny condition. The cropped arable land fraction (CALF)  was 2% lower than the past 5-year average.

The whole region displayed NDVI values that were below but close to average as shown by the NDVI clusters and profiles. Northern Jiangsu showed above-average crop conditions, accounting for 16.1% of the total cultivated area, while about 38.2% of the cultivated land located in south-eastern Hebei, Tianjin and southeastern Liaoning had poor crop growth condition in mid and late January. Then the crops recovered to average levels over the regions mentioned above. The crop growth in the remaining areas of Huanghuaihai was somewhat lower than the average level, including parts of eastern Liaoning and eastern Hebei. The potential biomass departure map shows that biomass in the northern part of the region was significantly lower than the average level and higher in the south, which is consistent with the actual growth situation reflected by the NDVI anomaly cluster map.

Figure 4.12.Crop condition China Huanghuaihai, January-April 2020

(a) Crop condition development graph based on NDVI

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

(d) Maximum VCI

(e) Biomass departure