Russia experienced poor cropcondition from January to April (VCIx=0.61),which coincided with the wintering stage of winter wheatand early planting of spring wheat. The fraction of cropped arable land (CALF)dropped1 percentage point when compared to the five-year average. Russiaexperienced warm and wet conditions in these four months. Precipitationexceeds the recent average (+12%), and the temperature anomaly issignificant at +1.6°C.Mainly due to the weather conditions, the BIOMSS indicator rose 15%above the five-year average.

Significantly belowaverage NDVI values occurred in more than 85% of Russia's agricultural area betweenDecember and the end of March. As a result of serious frost in autumn and earlywinter in southern Russia, crop condition is mostly poor, with VCIx values below0.5 in the central-south of Russia including the Orenburg Oblast, BashkortostanRepublic, Samara Oblast, and Saratov Oblast. During this monitoring period, NDVIwas below the average of the last five years in most of the country until theend of April, which may be partly due to phenology, but not during the wintermonths. Altogether, crop condition for Russia is estimated to be just fair.

Figure3.27. Russia crop condition, January-April2015

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

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