Poland enjoyed mostly favourable conditions during this monitoring period (maximum VCI=0.82), which corresponds with the wintering stage of winter wheat; maize seeding starts in the beginning of April. The cropped arable land fraction (CALF) for the country is the same as the average of the last five years. Weather during January to April was much wetter and warmer than average, with RAIN up 25% and TEMP 0.7°C. RADPAR dropped 10% below average and the potential biomass indicator BIOMSS was 17% above average due to the combination of abundant precipitation and mild weather.

The overall crop condition in Poland is close to the than last five years' average: after a generalised NDVI drop at the end of February-early March it generally recovered in April, although the northwest raises concern, especially Gdynia, Gdańsk and Koszalin, where the NDVI consistently remained below average, possibly due to a cold March after a warm January and February (refer to 2.7). The production of the country’s winter crop is predicted to be lower than but close to average.

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

(c)Spatial NDVI patterns compared to 5YA                               (d) NDVI profile