The monitoring period covers the harvestingstage of secondary rice and maize, as well as the sowing stage of main rice andmaize for the country. Crop condition was favorable from January to April, witha VCIx of 0.69 for the country overall. The cropped arable land fraction (CALF)was average.

Over the reporting period, the Philippinesenjoyed a large increase of rainfall over average (RAIN, +69%), whiletemperature and PAR were below average (TEMP, -0.9°C and RADPAR, -5%).Benefiting from the abundant rainfall, the biomass accumulation potential (BIOMSS)was 33% above the recent five-year average, a finding confirmed by the nationalNDVI development curve exceeding the recent five-year average and last year’svalues in April. According to the maximum VCI distribution map, many pixels’VCIx values exceed 1 in the regions of Ilocos and Mimaropa, indicating veryfavorable crop condition. Altogether, the output of the main season crops inthe Philippines is expected to be above average.

Figure 3.24. Philippines 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 Profile