This chapter starts with a brief overview of the agro-climatic and agronomic conditions in China over the reporting period (section 4.1). Next it presents an updated estimate of national winter crop production (4.2) and describes the situation by region, focusing on the seven most productive agro-ecological regions located in the east and south: Northeast China, Inner Mongolia, Huanghuaihai, Loess region, Lower Yangtze, Southwest China, and Southern China (4.3). Section 4.4 describes trade prospects (import/export) of major crops. Additional information on the agroclimatic indicators for agriculturally important Chinese provinces is included in table A.11 in Annex A.

4.1 Overview

This report covers the main growing period of winter wheat and rapeseed. The sowing of the first summer crops, such as spring maize and early rice started in March. Half cropland in China is irrigated and agro-meteorological conditions play important role for the rest crops. Rainfall is not the major influential factor on irrigated cropland.

Generally speaking, agro-climatic conditions over the major winter crops producing regions were favorable. For China, RAIN and TEMP increased by 19% and 0.3℃, respectively, as compared to the 15-year average, whereas RADPAR decreased by 2%. Consequently, BIOMSS was 7% above average. During the reporting period, rainfall in China's main winter crop producing areas was 6% lower than average and temperature was 0.5℃ higher. Sowing of winter crops was delayed in the North China Plain due to excessive soil moisture. After mid April, thanks to above average solar radiation and optimal temperatures, as well as optimal crop management,  crop growth in the North China Plain was significantly higher than in previous years. In early May, crop conditions were better than average in most of the main production provinces and regions.

National CALF increased 1% and VCIx was quite favorable, with a value of 0.92.

Spatially, 66.7% of the arable land (marked in light green) experienced close-to-average precipitation throughout the monitoring period. Arable land in the remaining regions all went through some rainfall fluctuations. The blue marked areas (21.2% of the cropland), mainly distributed in northern part of Southwest China and northern part of Lower Yangtze region, experienced negative rainfall anomalies (more than 30 mm/dekad below average) in early April, and positive rainfall anomalies (more than 60 mm/dekad above average) in late April. The dark green marked areas (12.1% of the cropland), mainly distributed in southern part of Southwest China, southern part of Lower Yangtze region, had the biggest positive rainfall departure (approximately +80 mm/dekad) in middle Feburary, and the biggest negative rainfall departure (approximately -45 mm/dekad) in early April. Temperature anomalies varied over time across the whole country. The light green marked areas, including some parts of Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Inner Mongolia, had the biggest positive temperature departure (more than 4.5℃ above average) in early March. The blue marked areas, including southern Inner Mongolia, western Loess region, southern Lower Yangtze region, most parts of Southwest China, and Southern China, had the biggest negative temperature departure (more than 3.0℃ below average) in early and late Feburary. Uncropped areas mainly occurred in the North-west and North-east regions and some parts in Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Hebei. 

In April, the cropping season was well underway in southern and central China. According to the spatial VCIx patterns, favorable crop conditions (VCIx larger than 0.8) occurred widely across China; values between 0.5 and 0.8 were observed for some parts in Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Hebei, where cropland was not fully cultivated during the monitoring period according to the CALF map. The potential biomass showed significant variability across regions. Positive anomalies (more than 20%, marked in blue) occurred in central Northeast China, southern Inner Mongolia, western Loess region, southern Huanghuaihai, and most parts of Southwest China, while negative anomalies (-20% or more) were mainly observed in some parts of Shanxi, Shaanxi, Hebei, Shandong, Henan, Ningxia, Jiangsu, and Anhui. When it comes to VHIn, high values (above 36%) are widespread in China, indicating limited water deficit effects on most of the winter crops.

As for the main producing regions at the sub-national level, rainfall was above average, ranging from +10% to +31%, except for Huanghuaihai (-6%). TEMP was all at or above average, and the range of temperature departures is from +0.0°C to +0.7°C, with the highest positive departure in Northeast China. RADPAR was below average, except for Southern China. Consequently, BIOMSS increased in almost all the regions compared to average with the anomalies ranging from 3% to 15%, except for Huanghuaihai. CALF in all regions was all slightly above average but still lower than same period in 2021 except for Loess Region where CALF was 3% below average. Almost no crops are in field in Northeast China and Inner Mongolia during this monitoring period, CALF values are not representative. As for VCIx, the values were quite high for all the regions, ranging between 0.85 and 0.99, with values less than 0.9 occurred in Loess region and Northeast China mainly related to the reduced cultivated areas.

Table 4.1 CropWatch agro-climatic and agronomic indicators for China, January to April 2022, departure from 5YA and 15YA

Figure 4.1 China crop calendar

Figure 4.2 China spatial distribution of rainfall profiles, January - April 2022

Figure 4.3 China spatial distribution of temperature profiles, January - April 2022

Figure 4.4 China cropped and uncropped arable land, by pixel, January - April 2022

Figure 4.5 China maximum Vegetation Condition Index (VCIx), by pixel, January - April 2022

Figure 4.6 China biomass departure map from 15YA, by pixel, January - April 2022

Figure 4.7 China minimum Vegetation Health Index, by pixel (VHIn), January - April 2022