In the Lower Yangtze region, the monitoring period from July to October mainly covers the harvest of semi-late rice and the maturity of late rice. In general, crop condition was well below the recent five-year average according to the crop condition development graph. The CropWatch agro-climatic and agronomic indicators show that rainfall (RAIN) was significantly above average (33%), while temperature (TEMP) was close to average just below (-0.1°C). The region also suffered a very significant drop in PAR (RADPAR -8%) but the BIOMSS production potential was above the recent five-year average (+16%). NDVI profilesProfiles of NDVI departure clusters show that crop condition was mostly poor well below average in 11.1% of the agricultural areas, including the south of Jiangsu, middle of Anhui and Hubei, and the north of Zhejiang province. The BIOMSS map further indicates that the biomass was lower or close to average in the northeast of Zhejiang, west of Anhui, south of Henan, and east of Hubei provinces. CropWatch estimates that production in the Lower Yangtze region is to be below but close to average.

(a) Crop condition development graph based on NDVI

(b) Spatial NDVI patterns compared to 5YA                 (c) NDVI profiles

(d) Maximum VCI                                                                (e) Biomass