During this monitoring period, winter wheat and rapeseed had reached maturity by June in Hubei, Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu provinces. The semi-late and late rice crops are still growing in the south and the center of the region including Jiangsu, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, and Hubei provinces, while early rice has been harvested.

According to the CropWatch agro-climatic indicators, the accumulated precipitation was 8% below the average. Temperature and photosynthetically active radiation were 0.5℃ and 2% higher than the 15-year averages, respectively. The agro-climatic condition with abundant sunlight resulted in an increase of biomass potential production by 6%. The rainfall profile indicates that late June and late July precipitation exceeded the 15-year average.

As shown in the NDVI development graph, crop conditions were slightly below the 5-year average. 45.3% of the monitoring area, including the northern parts of the region such as Anhui, Henan, southern Jiangsu, and Hubei, as well as Hunan, and central Jiangxi, showed crop conditions close to average. The crop conditions in other parts were slightly below average. The potential biomass departure indicates that the agro-climatic conditions were generally above average in most areas, with potential biomass departure values mostly in the range of 0-20%. The potential biomass in the northern part of this region was slightly better than the other regions, which was generally consistent with the NDVI distribution. 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, April 2023 – July 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