The period covered by this bulletin is of relevance for winter/spring rice in Vietnam. The fraction of cropped arable land (CALF) in the country was close to the average of the previous five years. Most of the rice cultivation regions are distributed in the Red River delta in northern Vietnam and the Mekong River delta in southern Vietnam.Vegetation condition indices (maximum VCI) were above 0.8 in most of the two main rice producing areas, with the exception of the southern tip of Vietnam due to the salt water intrusion. For the period under consideration, the CropWatch environmental indices show markedly below average rainfall (RAIN, -14%)and a correlated slight increase in PAR (RADPAR, 6%) and temperature (TEMP, 1.1°C)in comparison with the previous fourteen years. The insufficient rainfall limited the biomass accumulation and resulted in a 6% decrease in the BIOMSS indicator compared with the average of the previous five years. Crop condition departed little from the five-year average during the entire monitoring period. The northern part of Vietnam (mainly in Lao Cai, Ha Giang, and Tuyen Quang, roughly11.5% of the cropped area) suffered below average crop condition due to the dry weather and crop diseases from January to the end of April, as shown by the NDVI profiles and clusters.

Figure3.33. Vietnam 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