Currently, wheat, winter barley, spring barley, and rapeseed are inthe vegetative stages. Crop condition in the United Kingdom showed generallyfavorable condition over the reporting period, resulting from mostly averageweather at the national scale, with only radiation (RADPAR) showing a markeddecrease of 9%. The biomass production potential BIOMSS is expected to beaverage as well. As shown by the crop condition development graph and the nationalNDVI values, crop condition is average at the time of reporting, afterrecovering from low values from late January to late February in the south,especially the southeast in an area extending roughly from Norfolk shire toDorset shire and south of it. This spatial pattern is also reflected by themaximum VCI in the different areas, with a VCIx of 0.82 for the countryoverall. The area of cropped arable land (CALF) increased by 1 percentage pointcompared to the five-year average.

Figure3.14. United Kingdom crop condition, January-April2017

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

(c). Spatial NDVI pattern compared to 5YA                                        (d). NDVI profile