The period from January to April 2015 covers the entire growing period of the second (dry season) rice crop and the harvest of the main (wet season) rice crop in Cambodia. The fraction of cropped arable land (CALF) was about the same as the recent five-year average. Low vegetation condition indices (VCIx) occur in a scatteredway in most parts of the country. For the period under consideration, the CropWatch environmental indices show markedly below average rainfall (-18%),while temperature increased significantly by 1.2°C above average and PAR was 6%above average. Consequently, the extremely low rainfall decreased the biomass accumulation expectations (expressed by BIOMSS) by 16% compared to the recent five-yearaverage. Crop condition of Cambodia assessed from nationwide NDVI was also below average during the entire reporting period. The profiles and NDVI clusters also show that crop condition in only 20% of the cropped area was above average from late January to the end of April (mainly concerning Phnom Penh, Kandal, KampongCham, and northwest Cambodia).

Figure3.19. Cambodia 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