The report covers the harvesting period for early soybean, early maize and rice, and the main growing period for late soybean and late maize. The proportion of irrigated cropland in Argentina is only 9% and agro-meteorological conditions play a decisive role in the growth of crops. For the whole country, rainfall showed a positive anomaly of 34%, TEMP showed a slight negative anomaly (-0.5°), RADPAR showed a 0.4% negative anomaly and BIOMSS a 8% positive anomaly. The rainfall profiles showed negative anomalies at the end of December and the beginning of January. They explain the negative NDVI anomalies observed at the beginning of the reporting period. High rainfall observed at the end of January and February could have accelerated the crop development reducing negative anomalies and generating positive anomalies in NDVI at the end of the reporting period. TEMP profile showed quite temporal variability with positive anomalies at the beginning of the reporting period followed by alternating sub-periods with no or negative anomalies.  In general, conditions were rather favorable, better than the poor conditions observed at the end of the last reporting period.

Regional Analysis

CropWatch subdivides Argentina into eight agro-ecological zones (AEZ) based on cropping systems, climatic zones, and topography; they are identified by numbers on the NDVI departure cluster map. During this monitoring period, most crops were grown in the following four agro-ecological zones: Chaco, Mesopotamia, Humid Pampas, and Subtropical Highlands. The other agro-ecological zones were less relevant for this period. In Chaco and Subtropical Highlands main crops are soybean and maize. Main crops in Pampas and South Mesopotamia are soybean, maize and wheat, while in North Mesopotamia, rice is the main crop.

RAIN showed positive anomalies in all the AEZs: Humid Pampas (+57%), Mesopotamia (+35%), Chaco (+26%) and Subtropical Highlands (+26%). TEMP showed a slight positive anomaly in Mesopotamia (+0.2°) and negative anomalies in Humid Pampas (-1°), Subtropical Highlands (-0.5°) and Chaco (-0.1°). RADPAR showed no anomalies in Humid Pampas and slight negative anomalies in Chaco (-2%), Mesopotamia (-1%) and Subtropical Highlands (-1%). BIOMSS showed positive anomalies in all the AEZs: Humid Pampas (+16%), Mesopotamia (+7%), Chaco (+4%) and Subtropical Highlands (+4%).

CALF was complete (100%) and showed no anomalies in Chaco, Mesopotamia and Subtropical Highlands and showed a positive anomaly in Humid Pampas with a current value of 99%. Maximum VCI showed good conditions for the four AEZs: Humid Pampas (0.91), Chaco (0.89), Subtropical Highlands (0.88) and Mesopotamia (0.84).

For the whole country, the crop condition development graph based on NDVI showed negative anomalies during most of the reporting period, except for March, when values were near the 5-year average. Negative anomalies were also observed during December last year. Nevertheless, main agricultural areas showed some improvement in conditions. Chaco and Mesopotamia showed negative anomalies during part of December last year, January and February and no or positive anomalies during March and April. Subtropical Highlands showed no anomalies only in March and negative anomalies during the rest of the period. Humid Pampas showed negative anomalies during January and February (with similar values as last year), positive anomalies during March and no anomalies during April.

Spatial distribution of NDVI profiles showed homogeneous and heterogeneous spatial patterns for the different AEZs. Chaco and Mesopotamia were dominated by two profiles distributed homogeneously (red and light green) with higher presence of red in the North and of the light green profile in the South. Both profiles started with negative anomalies and finished the reporting period with nearly no anomalies. Except for the first period, the light green profile (South of these AEZs) showed higher values than the red profile.  Part of Humid Pampas showed a profile with positive anomalies during the end of February and March (dark green), but was also covered by the blue profile with quite stable and near average values. Center and Center West of Humid Pampas showed a NDVI profile with positive anomalies during most of the period and lower values at the beginning and end of the reporting period (orange profile). Subtropical highlands showed a mixture of several profiles (blue, red and light green).

Maximum VCI showed in general good conditions with values higher than 0.8. Some areas showed intermediate values like North and South of Humid Pampas.

Production outlook

Based on CropWatch area and yield monitoring, Argentina’s maize yield increased 1.8%, accompanying a 1.1% expansion of maize area and production increased by 2.9% at 54,971 thousand tonnes. While rice growing area remained as 2021, the yield of rice decreased and production decreased 2.9% at 1,849 thousand tonnes. Soybean increased in yield (+2.1%) while area decreased (-1.8%), the production increased 0.3% at 51,775 thousand tonnes.

In summary, total rainfall showed positive anomalies. But it was not regularly distributed, showing times of negative anomalies. VCIx and BIOMSS showed good conditions. NDVI profiles started with low values following poor rainfall conditions observed during December and January, but showed a tendency to increase at the end of this reporting period.

Figure 3.7 Argentina's crop condition, January - April 2022

a. Phenology of major crops

b. Crop condition development graph based on NDVI

c. Crop condition development graph based on NDVI (Pampas)

d. Crop condition development graph based on NDVI (Chaco)

e. Crop condition development graph based on NDVI (Mesopotamia)

f. Crop condition development graph based on NDVI (Subtropical Highlands)

g. Time series of rainfall profile

h. Time series of temperature profile

i. Spatial distribution of NDVI profiles

j. Maximum VCI

Table 3.5 Argentina’s agroclimatic indicators by sub-national regions, current season’s values and departure from 15YA, January 2022 – April 2022

Table 3.6 Argentina’s agronomic indicators by sub-national regions, current season’s values and departure from 5YA, January 2022 – April 2022

Table 3.7 Argentina’s crop production in 2022