This analysis covers the harvesting period of last year’s summer crops (cereals, spring barley, and wheat) from October 2016 to late January of this year. Among the nationwide CropWatch agro-climatic indicators, compared with average, rainfall showed and increase (RAIN, +40.8%), temperature a decrease (TEMP, -1.3°C), and RADPAR a sharp decrease (RADPAR, -8.4%); the biomass production potential (BIOMSS) is expected to drop by 6.8%. The only region where rainfall decreased (RAIN, -2%) is the northeastern Zapadno-Kazakhstanskaya Oblast. NDVI clusters indicate that crops were in poor condition from October to December in the Oblasts of Severo-Kazakhstanskaya (north Kazakhstan) and Akmolinskaya (central region of Akmola). No crop was planted since November, and from December the NDVI index has been close to zero. The crop condition development graph also showed that crops were worse off than last year and the average of the last five years, but favorable rainfall has provided the appropriate soil moisture for the initial stages of the forthcoming crops.

(a)Crop condition development graph based on NDVI

(b)Maximum VCI

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