In general, crop condition was favorable in this monitoring period, which was the harvesting season of Mexico’s secondary 2014 maize and winter wheat, as well asthe planting season of the main 2015 maize crop. During the monitoring period,rainfall showed a significant positive departure (RAIN, +114%) compared to average; temperature was slightly above average (TEMP, +0.2°C), while radiation (RADPAR) underwent a marked drop of 8%.

Asa result of the abundant rainfall, NDVI development profiles after Marchindicated the favorable performance of crops, with close to 60% (59.5%) of crop areas showing conditions better than those during the last five years. The average maximum VCI reaches 0.95 and even exceeds 1.0 in some regions in the center and east. On average, the biomass accumulation potential (BIOMSS) abou tdoubled compared with the recent five-year averages (+101%). At the same time,the cropped arable land fraction (CALF) showed a positive departure of 16%.Combining both the increase of yield and CALF, significantly above average cropproduction can be expected.

Figure3.20. Mexico 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