During the monitoring period, the main crops were winter wheat and summer maize in Huanghuaihai region. Winter wheat was sown in October last year and harvested in June this year. Summer maize was planted after the winter wheat had been harvested. Agroclimatic indicators show that precipitation increased by 50%, temperature and radiation decreased by 0.3 degree and 4% compared to the 15YA. Altogether, it led to a 3% decrease in BIOMSS compared to the 15YA. The potential biomass departure map shows that biomass in the most part of the region was higher than the average level except for Central Hebei. The VCIx value was 0.93.

The NDVI-based crop growth profile shows that the peak growing period of winter wheat in April and early May was higher than or equal to the 5-year maximum, and was at the 5YA in July. As shown by NDVI clusters and profiles, 27.5% of cropland over central and Eastern Shandong and a small part of Hebei presented positive NDVI departures. 20.5% of cropland in Northern Anhui and Shandong and Southern Hebei were above average before June, but fell to below average level in June, and began to turn better than average in early July. 9.2% of cropland in central Henan and some scattered area in Shandong and Anhui were negative NDVI departures in July because of the floods. The map of maximum VCI shows that except for the poor growth of crop in a small part of the area, the crop conditions in Southern Hebei and Eastern Henan were even better than the optimal condition in the past five years. Overall, the crop condition was favorable during the monitoring period.

Figure 4.13 Crop condition China Huanghuaihai, April - July 2021

（a）Crop condition development graph based on NDVI

(b) Spatial distribution of NDVI profiles

(c) Time series temperature profile

(c) Time series rainfall profile

(d) Potential biomass departure from 5YA

(e) Maximum VCI

(f) Proportion of NDVI anomaly categories compared with 5YA