According to the overall NDVI-based season development graph and spatial NDVI patterns, the condition of crops in France was spatially contrasted over the January-April monitoring period. Currently, winter wheat, winter barley, and spring barley are in the vegetative stages. At the national level, compared with the average for the same period, CropWatch agroclimatic indicators show a 36% decrease in RAIN, a 0.8°C decrease in TEMP, and close to average RADPAR. Subsequently, BIOMSS presents a 31% decrease over average due to the continuous rainfall deficit, especially after mid-March, coupled with the impact of low temperature. As shown by crop condition development graph based on NDVI, however, national NDVI values were well above average and close to the five-year maximum from early March to early April, consistent with a VCIx of 0.87 for France.

The spatial NDVI patterns for France show that NDVI values in many areas were below the five-year average from early January to the end of February. This, however, does not apply to 4.1 percent of agricultural areas, including the east of Franche-Comte, Rhone-Alpes, Provence Alpes Cote d'Azur, and the Mediterranean region of southern and southwestern France, where favorable conditions occurred throughout the reporting period. In the areas with below average values at the beginning of the monitoring period, NDVI values went up and above average again from early March to early April as a result of favorable temperature, while again dropping below average after early April due to the distinctly drier-than-usual weather conditions and low minimum temperature, which also affected flowering rapeseed in eastern France. Observations are consistent with the crop condition development graph based on NDVI. 

Generally, the agronomic indicators mentioned above point at average condition for most winter crop areas of France for the time being, but more rain is needed in several important crop production areas to sustain good yields.

Figure 3.14. France crop condition, January-April 2017

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

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