During this monitoring period, only winter crops like wheat and rapeseed were in the field, mostly in the north of the region, including parts in Hubei, Henan, Anhui, and Jiangsu provinces. There were no crops grown in Fujian and the southern Jiangxi and Hunan provinces.
According to the CropWatch agro-climatic indicators, the temperature and photosynthetically active radiation were slightly below the 15YA average (TEMP -0.2 ℃, RADPAR -0.5%). However, the accumulated precipitation was significantly below average (RAIN -44%). The below-average agro-climatic conditions resulted in a 7% negative departure of biomass production potential. The potential biomass departure map shows the spatial variation of the weather impact on crops. Only southern Jiangsu and central Anhui had a positive anomaly of up to 20% above average. The potential biomass of other regions was lower than the average, especially in parts of Hunan and Hubei, which were more than 20% lower than the five year average.
As shown in the NDVI development graph, crop conditions were near the 5-year average. However, 41.3% of the area, mostly distributed in the north and center of this region, including Jiangsu, Anhui, Hubei, Henan, and Jiangxi provinces, had a better crop condition compared to the five-year average.  It basically coincided with the situation depicted by the VCIx patterns. The average VCIx of this region is 0.96, and most area had VCIx values ranging from 0.8 to 1.
The crop condition in the Lower Yangtze region is currently assessed as close to but below average.

Figure 4.11 Crop condition Lower Yangtze region, October 2020 to January 2021

 (a) Crop condition development graph based on NDVI

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

                          (d) Maximum VCI        (e) Potential biomass departure from 15YA