The reporting period coincides with the growing and harvesting stages of rabi (winter) wheat and barley. Except in the lower Indus basin where rainfall exceeded average by 11%, agroclimatic indicators show a nationwide drop of rainfall (-13 %), radiation (-1%) as well as the biomass production potential (-27%) compared with average. Temperature was close to average (-0.1C) and cultivated land (CALF) underwent a spectacular increase of 15% over the recent five years' average.

The national NDVI development graph indicates that crop condition was favorable from the start of January till the end of March, but from the beginning of April crop condition dropped below the average of the past five years. The lowest maximum VCI values (below 0.5) occur in the entire Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, upper Punjab, upper Sindh as well as most of the areas of Balochistan. According to the NDVI profiles, about 13% (13.1%) of the cropped area display consistently below average conditions from January through the end of April. These areas include the central Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, all of Punjab and the lower and central Sindh. 26.1% of the cropped areas show above average conditions from January to the start of February, much of it in Punjab. Remaining areas i.e. 60% enjoy above average condition. Altogether, crop condition is estimated to be about average.

(a) Crop condition development graph based on NDVI