The reporting period covers the flowering and maturity of winter wheat in southwestern China. Summer crops including semi-late rice, late rice and maize are still at growing stage. According to the regional NDVI profile, overall crop condition was close to average. It exceeded the average level in early June and reached the maximum of five years.

According to the agroclimatic and agronomic indices, compared to average, rainfall was just above (RAIN +3%), sunshine was low (RADPAR -4%) while the temperature was average. Compared to the average of the past 5 years, the cropped arable land fraction remained stable and the potential biomass production index was very slightly above (BIOMSS +2%). The maximum VCI was 0.94 indicating the crop growth status is close to the best level in the past ten years.

As shown by NDVI clusters and maps, crop condition in the region was close to average throughout the monitoring period except for late June and early July in western Sichuan Plain and Guizhou; both areas experienced very low NDVI but with different reason: the former one is due to abundant precipitation  (RAIN +32%) early in the season, while the latter one is suffering from water shortage. Considering the average condition before June and during late July, the short period of abnormal weather had limited impacts on crops. Altogether, the situation in the region is average but still deserves close monitoring during late growing stage.

(a) Crop condition development graph based on NDVI

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

(d) Maximum VCI                                                                                                (e) Biomass