Australia's wheat and barley were sown in May. These crops are grown during the Australian winter season. At the national scale, Australia received sufficient rainfall, which was 22% above average. The other agro-climatic indicators were close to the 15YA, including TEMP (0.0°C), RADPAR (0%), BIOMSS (0%). The agronomic indicators were also positive, with a VCIx of 0.82 and an increased CALF (+6%).

The national NDVI profile shows that overall crop conditions were better than the 5-year average, but lower than the maximum. From the VCI map, the crop condition in Western Australia were better than in the southeast states. The lowest VCIs were found in the west Victoria and New South Wales. The NDVI departure clustering also showed the same spatial pattern. Above-average  NDVI was observed on 29% of the cropland, while 24.9% remained below average throughout this monitoring period.

Overall, the agro-climatic indicators in the reporting period are promising. The sufficient rainfall and above-average CALF and NDVI indicate generally favorable crop conditions.

Regional analysis

This analysis adopts five agro-ecological zones (AEZs) 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). The Arid and Semi-arid Zone, in which hardly any crop production takes place, was not analyzed.

The agro-climatic indicators show that the 4 AEZs could be assigned into two groups. Group 1 includes Southeastern wheat zone, Subhumid subtropical zone, and Wet temperate and subtropical zone, which had the same departure patterns. Group 1 experienced above-average rainfall (+12%, +24%, +14%), slightly below-average temperature (-0.1°C, -0.4°C, -0.1°C), average sunshine (0%, +1%, +2%), and average biomass (0%, 0%, +4%). However, the CALF values in these 3 AEZs were different, in where the Southeastern wheat area and Wet temperate and subtropical zones were average, while the Subhumid subtropical zone was 30% greater than the 5YA. Accordingly, the NDVI profiles also showed the Subhumid subtropical zone had favorable crop conditions, while the other two zones were close to average. The VCIx were 0.68, 0.86 and 0.86, respectively. Only the Southeastern wheat area was not favorable.

The Southwestern Wheat Zone, representing the 2nd group, had significantly above-average rainfall (+67%), slightly above-average temperature (+0.2°C), below-average sunshine (-6%) and average biomass (+2%). The CALF was 94%, 12% above average. The VCIx was 1.02, which indicated that the crop condition in this AEZ are excellent. This is further confirmed by the NDVI profile showing values that  were mostly close to last 5 years' maximum.

Figure 3.8 Australia crop condition, April 2021 - July 2021

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

(g) Crop condition development graph based on NDVI (Arid and semiarid zone (left) and Southeastern wheat area (right))

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

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