The period from April to July 2015 covers the harvest of the second (dry season) rice, the early stage of the main (wet season) rice, and the growing period of maize. Compared to the five-year average, crop condition before July was below average. The CropWatch agroclimatic and agronomic indicators show that Cambodia suffered a minor drop inprecipitation compared to average (RAIN, -3%), which decreased the biomass accumulation expectations (expressed by BIOMSS) by 5% compared to the recentfive-year average, while TEMP (+0.8°C) and especially RADPAR (+5%) were higher than average. At the same time, the fraction of cropped arable land (CALF) decreased6 percentage points compared to average. Low vegetation condition indices(VCIx) occur in a scattered way south of Tonle Sap, which is attributed to shortage of rain in Kampong Seu, Kampong Chhnang, and Pursat. Overall cropprospects for the country are not optimistic.

Figure3.19. Cambodia 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