During the current period, summer crops were growing in China, including mostly early rice, semi-late rice, spring maize, and soybean.

At the national scale, rainfall and temperature were average while RADPAR was low by 6%. The BIOMSS and CALF were respectively 5% and 2% above average. The maximum VCI was 0.94. Overall crop condition was favorable. 

At the sub-national level, above-average rainfall occurred in Huanghuaihai, Inner Mongolia, Loess region and Southwest China. On the contrary, Lower Yangtze, Northeast China and Southern China experienced below-average rainfall. Temperature was average or above in all regions, except Southern China (-0.5℃), even if it fluctuated significantly. Rainfall profiles show that the variable fluctuated a lot, especially in southeast China, accounting for 7% of national cropped areas (figure 4.1). These regions experienced more than 60 mm below-average rainfall in early May, whereas 105 mm above average fell in late May. In 93% of areas in China, however, rainfall was continuously close to average over the monitoring period.

BIOMSS was 7%, 13% and 11% above average for Huanghuaihai, Inner Mongolia and the Loess region, and was close to average for Lower Yangtze, Northeast, Southern and Southwest China (departures between 0% and 2%). CALF increased by 10% and 13% in Inner Mongolia and Loess region ,compared to average. In contrast, the values for this indicator in other regions were slightly below average or average. The maximum VCI values exceeded 0.90 for all regions, indicating mostly satisfactory crop condition.

As shown in figure 4.3, most cropland in China was cropped (with the exception of central Inner Mongolia and eastern Gansu) during the reporting period as it is now the the peak of the agricultural season. The Highest values (larger than 1) of maximum VCI appear in northeast and northern China (figure 4.4). The values of this indicator were generally between 0.5 and 1.0 in other regions. 

Table 4.1. CropWatch agroclimatic and agronomic indicators for China, April-July 2018, departure from 5YA and 15YA

Figure 4.1. China spatial distribution of rainfall profiles, April-July 2018 

Figure 4.2. China spatial distribution of temperature profiles, April-July 2018  

Figure 4.3. China cropped and uncropped arableland, by pixel, April-July 2018 

Figure 4.4. China maximum Vegetation ConditionIndex (VCIx), by pixel, April-July 2018