As a key agroclimatic indicator, Photosynthetically Active Radiation(PAR, as assessed by the CropWatch agroclimatic indicator RADPAR) has anobvious relationship with temperature and rainfall patterns: abundant rainfallis associated with high cloudiness, which leads to low daytime temperatures,mostly in temperate areas. Compared to the recent average of the total 65 MRUs,slightly more than half of them are above average (figure 1.3).

The highest departure from the recent reference period occurred in centralnorth Argentina (MRU-25) and the Pampas (MRU-26), with 10% and 9% decrease inPAR respectively. RADPAR also shows a decrease in the northernmost area ofthe continent, which is not of agricultural relevance, Sub Arctic America(MRU-65) where the variable dropped 8%, and Boreal North America (MRU-61) whereit decreased by 3% compared to the average.

Record high PAR departures are concentrated in several adjacent areas,including (i) East African Highlands (MRU-02, +7%), equatorial central Africa(MRU-01, +6%) and the Horn of Africa (MRU-04, +4%); (ii) the Caribbean (MRU-20,+5%) and Amazon (MRU-24, +5%); (iii) Southeast Asia islands (MRU-49, +9%) andSouthern Asia (MRU-45, +6%).

In China, the major paddy rice production areas, the Lower Yangtze(MRU-37) and southern China (MRU-40), show significant a decrease in terms ofPAR with -8% and -7% respectively. South-west China (MRU-41) also experiencedbelow average PAR with a -3% departure, which probably results from thecloudiness associated with abundant rainfall in the region. The areas with highPAR are the Chinese Loess Region (MRU-36, +7%), Huanghuaihai (MRU-34, +5%), andHainan (MRU-33, +3%). The rest of China generally shows average PAR levelduring the current reporting period.

Figure 1.3. Global map of PAR anomaly (as indicatedby the RADPAR indicator) by MRU, departure from 14YA July-October 2015(percentage)