The condition of maize and soybean, the mainsummer crops in Inner Mongolia, was generally unfavorable during the reportingperiod (figure 4.11): rainfall was above average by 5%, but poorly distributed;central and western areas were dry from June. TEMP was below average by 0.3°C, RADPAR above average by 1%, and BIOMASS below average by 5%. The cropdevelopment graph reflects poor crop condition throughout the monitoringperiod. Western and southern areas suffered from drought, which hassignificantly affected crop growth with troughs in the NDVI profiles startingin July in approximately 6% of the region. Western Liaoning, western Hebei,northern Shanxi and central and south-eastern Inner Mongolia all have poorvegetation conditions according to the VCIx map. In partly cropped land, thepotential biomass was poor due to drought. According to the CropWatch indicators,maize and soybean production decreased to varying degrees compared with theprevious season.

Figure4.11. Crop condition China Inner Mongolia, July-October 2015

(a)Crop condition development graph based on NDVI