Argentina experienced generally favorable conditions during the monitoring period. Wheat harvest ended in early January, while harvesting of summer crops (soybean and maize) are still ongoing. TEMP (-0.6°) and RADPAR (-1%) were slightly below average, while RAIN was 40% above, resulting in a 19% above average BIOMSS for the reporting period compared to average. The abundant rainfall in Chaco (+70%), Corrientes (+81%), and La Pampa (+73%) account for respectively +34%, +33%, and +35% BIOMSS increases in those provinces. The cropped arable land fraction (CALF) in Argentina increased 1 percentage point over average, indicating more land is cropped. According to the NDVI based development profile, the NDVI values from January to April were overall lower than those in 2016, with the exception of the second half of April. The spatial NDVI patterns and corresponding profiles demonstrate that 42.5% of arable land had above average conditions during the summer crop season, while the VCIx map shows that VCIx values in most parts of the major maize and soybean producing areas (including Cordoba, Santa Fe, and northwestern Buenos Aires) were above 0.8. Moreover, VCIx values in the middle part of Chaco were overall above 1.0, which shows an unusually good crop growth situation. Altogether, indicators show a promising summer season output for Argentina. CropWatch puts maize production at 29.9 million tons (a 16% increase over 2016) and soybean production at 51.1 million tons, a level similar to that of last year. Production figures by provinces are provided in table B.1 in Annex B.

Figure 4.5. Argentina crop condition, January-April 2017, (a)-(d)

(a) Crop condition development graph based on NDVI      (b) Maximum VCI

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