This monitoring period (July 2024 to October 2024) covers the sowing period for winter crops and the harvesting period for summer crops in the Major Production Zone (MPZ) of Central Europe and Western Russia. Crops in this region are mainly rainfed, making agro-meteorological conditions crucial. Overall, crop growth conditions varied significantly within this MPZ (Figure 2.6).

CropWatch agronomic indicators show that the Crop Production Index (CPI) of the MPZ was 0.88, 0.12 units (ΔCPI -0.12) below both the 5YA average and the level of the same period last year. The maximum VCI values below 0.5 were mainly concentrated in southern Russia, southeastern Ukraine, and southern Romania. Additionally, the maximum VCI values of 0.5 to 0.8 were found in Poland, eastern Ukraine, and central Russia, while maximum VCI values in most other areas were above 0.8. About 91.8% of the arable land in the MPZ was cropped, 4.0% lower than the 5YA average. The small amount of uncropped areas of arable land was primarily concentrated in southern Russia, southern Ukraine, and southern Romania. The VHI minimum map shows that apart from the extensive short-term drought impacts in southern Russia and central and eastern Ukraine, varying degrees of short-term drought also affected areas in Belarus, Poland, and parts of Romania. Combined with the potential cumulative biomass departure map, it can be observed that potential cumulative biomass in the drought-affected areas was reduced by more than 10%. The spatial distribution map of minimum VHI is consistent with the areas where the maximum VCI value was below 0.5 in the spatial distribution map of maximum VCI.

The spatial distribution map of precipitation departure clustering and process lines show that: 9.8% of the MPZ (eastern Russia, Moldova, the Czech Republic, northern Austria, and southern Poland) had above average precipitation from early to mid-July. 67.8% of the MPZ (southern Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Romania, and Moldova) had below average precipitation from late July to early September, then sharply increased across most areas except for southern Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and northern Poland, reaching a peak in mid-September, followed by fluctuations and a drop below average in mid-October. On the other hand, precipitation in 21.9% of the MPZ (the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Moldova, western Ukraine, and southern Poland) fluctuated around average throughout the monitoring period, with levels above average in early July, early September, and early October, but below average at other times.

At the same time, the MPZ experienced warmer temperature (ΔTEMP +1.8°C), and higher solar radiation (ΔRADPAR +6.1%). As shown in the spatial distribution of temperature profiles, the MPZ experienced significantly above average temperatures in early July, late September to early October. For 42.9% of the MPZ (central and eastern Russia) temperatures were below average from mid-July to mid-August (blue and green areas in the figure 2.6c), while 34.5% of the MPZ (central and western Russia, Belarus, East-central Ukraine and northeastern Poland) were significantly below average from late July to mid-August. For 42.9% of the MPZ (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Moldova, western Ukraine, Hungary and Austria)  temperatures were below average in early August and mid-September. The average temperature in the MPZ was significantly below average in mid-October.

Below average precipitation coupled with above average temperatures resulted in potential biomass of 12.1% below average. The potential biomass departure showed that the decreases in BIOMSS values (-20% and less) were observed in central and south-western Russia, east-central Poland, central Romania, western and eastern Belarus, north-eastern Ukraine and north-eastern Slovakia. In contrast, BIOMSS was above average (+10% and more), mainly in southern and eastern Russia, western Ukraine, western Poland, western Czech Republic, parts of Austria, west-central Hungary, and eastern Romania.

     Generally, the conditions of crops in the MPZ were mixed.

Figure 2.6 Central Europe to Western Russia MPZ: Agroclimatic and agronomic indicators, July 2024 – October 2024.

a. Spatial distribution of rainfall profiles                               b. Profiles of rainfall depature from average (mm)   

c. Spatial distribution of temperature profiles                      d. Profiles of temperature depature from average (℃)               

e. Maximum VCI

f. Cropped and uncropped arable land 

g. VHI Minimum

h. Potential biomass departure from 5YA

i. Crop Production index time series chart

j. Cropping intensity, November 2023-October, 2024