During the monitoring period, the harvest of early rice had been completed. In July, late rice was partially transplanted. Overall, the crop conditions in Southern China were below the five-year average.

According to the CropWatch agro-climatic indicators, the accumulated precipitation during this period was 1063 mm (-21%), which was lower than the average for the same period in the past 15 years. The temperature was 23.5℃ (+0.9℃), which was higher than the average, and RADPAR was 6% higher. The potential biomass was 2% lower due to the lower precipitation.

According to the NDVI departure clustering map and the profiles, crop condition in 41.1% of the region's cropland was close to the average throughout the monitoring period. Due to insufficient precipitation, the crop conditions in the eastern part of Guangxi and Guangdong experienced a significant decrease in the first half of April. However, it approached average thereafter. Crop conditions in certain areas of Yunnan and the western and southeastern parts of Guangxi experienced a significant decline in June and July. BIOMSS shows below-average biomass in Yunnan and Western Guangxi, which may be associated with a decrease in precipitation. The cropped arable land fraction remained at the same level as in the last five years, slightly below the same period in 2022. The VCIx for the whole region was 0.93. However, the occurrence of Typhoon "Talim" during the harvesting period of early rice, had a detrimental effect on the rice harvest and drying.

In general, crop condition in Southern China was slightly below average in the monitoring period.

Figure 4.12 Crop condition Southern China region, April - July 2023.

(a) Crop condition development graph based on NDVI 

(b)Time series rainfall profile

(c)Time series temperature pofile

(d)Maximum VCI

(e) Spatial NDVI patterns compared to 5YA   (f) NDVI profiles

(g)Potential biomass departure from 5YA