During this monitoring period, only winter crops like wheat and rapeseed were in the field, mostly in the north of the region, including parts of Hubei, Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu provinces. Limited winter crops were planted in Fujian, the southern Jiangxi and Hunan provinces.

According to the CropWatch agro-climatic indicators, the accumulated precipitation was 11% below the average. Temperature and photosynthetically active radiation were 1.0℃ and 9% higher than the 15-year averages, respectively. The agro-climatic condition with abundant sunlight resulted in an increase of biomass potential production by 1%. The rainfall profile indicates that the precipitation gradually increased from late March when it surpassed the 15YA.

As shown in the NDVI development graph, crop conditions were slightly below the 5-year average. 22.6% of the region, mainly in the northern part, including Anhui, Henan and northern Zhejiang, had above-average crop growth. The crop conditions in other parts were slightly below average. The potential biomass departure indicates that crop growth patterns were close to the average level of previous years, with most regions falling within the -10% to 10% range. Regions with positive biomass departures by more than 20% also had above average NDVI values. They were mainly located in the north. The average VCIx of this region was 0.90, and most of the area had VCIx values ranging from 0.8 to 1.

In general, the crop conditions in the Lower Yangtze region were close to average.

Figure 4.8 Crop condition China Lower Yangtze region, January 2023 – April 2023

(a) Crop condition development graph based on NDVI                   (b) Spatial NDVI patterns compared to 5YA                             (c) NDVI profiles

                                                           (d)Time series rainfall profile                                                                                        (e)Time series temperature profile

(f) Maximum VCI                                                                                                                (g) Biomass departure