Crop condition in Germany was generally above average but below last year’s over the reporting period.Currently, winter wheat and winter barley are in the vegetative stages and maize is being planted. The CropWatch agroclimatic indicators show that the reporting period recorded a 1% drop in RAIN compared to average, a 0.4°Cincrease in TEMP, and 3% above average RADPAR at the national level, which promoted the development of crops. With the positive thermal anomalies, BIOMSSis expected to increase by 16% compared to the five-year average at the national scale. The overall crop condition based on NDVI development also showsabove average condition. The spatial NDVI patterns compared to the five-year average and corresponding NDVI departure cluster profiles confirm that NDVI is above average for most arable land in Germany. In total, 27.5% of crop areas scattered across west, central, and eastern Germany showed apparently below average condition since March 2015, which is probably due to crops being earlythis year compared with average timing. The high maximum VCI values shown onthe maximum VCI map also present overall good crop condition, with a VCIx of0.87 for the country overall. Generally, the values of the agronomic indicators mentioned above result in above average condition for most winter crop areas in Germany, although still below last year’s condition.

Figure3.10. Germany crop condition, January-April2015

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

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