In general, crops in Argentina underwent below average conditions from April to July. Harvest ofsummer crops (mainly maize and soybean) was concluded by April. The planting ofwinter wheat was completed by late July and is currently in the tilleringstage. At the national level, overall agroclimatic conditions were favorable ascrops enjoyed sufficient rainfall (RAIN, +18% above average), warm temperature(TEMP, +1.4°C), and average radiation (RADPAR, -1%), which resulted in anaverage value for BIOMSS compared to the recent five years. As mentioned in theprevious bulletin, high temperature and adequate rainfall advanced the maturityand harvest of maize and soybean; the NDVI peak is above the recent five-yearaverage and that of last year. The rapid decrease of the NDVI value from Marchto late April indicates that the harvest of the summer crops progresses well.CropWatch puts the final production of maize and soybean at the same level asin the previous CropWatch forecast (see Annex B, table B.1). Since April,farming practices were dominated by the planting of winter wheat. Favorable agroclimaticconditions were observed in most of the major agricultural provinces with theexception of Santa Fe and Entre Rios where crops suffered 15% below averagerainfall conditions. However, winter wheat condition is slightly below averagein most regions according to the crop condition maps and graphs. The mainreason is excess moisture during wintering, as a series of storms since August1 has resulted in floods in major wheat producing regions, which may negativelyimpact wheat outputs.

Figure3.5. Argentina crop condition, April-July 2015

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

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