During this monitoring period from January to April, early rice was being transplanted while, in the north of the region, winter wheat had reached flowering and milky ripeness. Rapeseed has been harvested completely in early April.

The regional crop development graph based on NDVI shows below average conditions, due to mostly unfavourable rainfall (RAIN -18% compared to average) and sunshine (RADPAR, -9%). Although temperature was about average (+0.4°C), the potential BIOMSS dropped 8% compared to the average level and the regional VCIx was just 0.6. The BIOMSS map, however, has favourable conditions in the central-eastern Hubei (which is confirmed by VCIx), south Jiangsu, central Zhejiang and the north of Jiangxi and Guangdong provinces. According to NDVI profiles crop condition was below average in the whole region especially in the south, covering  14.9% of arable land. Considering that the fraction of cropped arable land (CALF) was 12 percentage points below the average of recent years, crop production is anticipated to be mostly unfavorable.