The period from April to July mainly covers the harvesting period of winter/spring rice and the sowing of the 10th month or north rice in Vietnam. Crop condition was generally below the average of the previous five years. Crops over more than 27% of the arable land (mainly in the south of the country and including parts of the Mekong Delta) are not in favorable condition. NDVI over the south of the country was continuously below the five-year average during the monitoring period. The maximum VCI of the area is lower than 0.5, indicating less than fair conditions. The NDVI based crop development profile also confirms the overallbelow average crop condition. The CropWatch agroclimatic and agronomicindicators were above or close to average (RAIN, +7%; TEMP, +0.1°C; and RADPAR,+5%). BIOMSS is average in comparison to the recent five years. Overall crop condition in the country is unsatisfactory.

Figure3.33. Vietnam crop condition, April-July2016

a)Crop condition development graph based on NDVI                                (b)Maximum VCI

(c)Spatial NDVI patterns compared to 5YA                          (d)NDVI profiles