Crop condition was below the past five years' average during the whole monitoring period (April-July 2015), but close to last year’s level from early July on forward. Currently, the winter wheat harvest has been completed and summer crops (maize and rice) are in the field. The CropWatch agroclimatic indicators show that rainfall (RAIN) and radiation (RADPAR) increased (+13% and +2%, respectively), but temperaturedropped (-0.7°C) compared to average. Because of the favorable climatic condition, the NDVI values for summer crops at the national scale displayed asharp increase that started late May, which is consistent with the relativehigh values for the biomass accumulation potential (BIOMSS, +13%) and the maximum VCI (0.89). The cropped arable land fraction (CALF) was equal toaverage. According to the spatial NDVI patterns, good crops (about half thecrop areas) are distributed in the northern and eastern Delta. In the westernand southwestern Delta, however, the crop condition was below average, evenwith a maximum VCI below 0.5 in some areas. Overall, the outcome of summercrops in Egypt is expected to be below the five-year average level but aboutsimilar to the output last year.

Figure3.11. Egypt crop condition, April-July2015

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

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