The condition of crops was slightly above average in the South American MPZ during the monitoring period. The two major crops (maize and soybean) are currently off growing season. Sufficient (46% above average) rainfall above the area provided favorable soil moisture for winter crops (wheat and rapeseed).Warm weather during the winter benefits the emergence and seeding development of winter crops in the region as well. Overall agroclimatic conditions were beneficial to crops as shown by the 19% above average BIOMSS. 

However, the spatial distribution of agroclimatic and agronomic indicators observed over July to October (figure 2.3) was in homogeneous. Evenif temperature over the whole MPZ was above average from July to August,temperature clusters indicate that below average temperature dominated the Pampas as well as southern Rio Grande do Sul. In combination with sufficientrainfall in Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, and Parana, BIOMSS is 20% above average in those regions while the variable is below averagefor most other regions mainly due to the below average rainfall. The vegetationhealth index (VHI) map confirms the favorable conditions in Rio Grande do Sul,Santa Catarina, and Parana but indicates water deficit in the Pampas and SaoPaulo. The unfavorable climatic conditions in the Pampas resulted in below average crop condition as confirmed by VCIx values below 0.5.  

The cropped arable land fraction (CALF) for the MPZ exceeded 95%, whichis 8% above the previous five-year average. Most of the uncropped arableland is located in central Cordoba and an area between Bahia Blanca and SantaRosa. The cropping intensity is 168%, about 1% up compared to the fiveyears average: 68% of the arable land is double cropped. Most of singlecropping areas occur in the central Pampas and central Sao Paulo. Compared tothe cropping intensity map in 2014, a clear shift of double cropping systemsfrom central Buenos Aires to southern and eastern Buenos Aires is observed.This is strong evidence for the fact that local farmers commonly adopt arotation in which single cropping of soybean in one year is followed by winterwheat - soybean double cropping in the following year. All of this data iscorrelated in figure 2.3.

Figure 2.3. South America MPZ:Agroclimatic and agronomic indicators, July-October 2015