The average NDVI development curves show that crop condition in this area is below last year’s level, but above the five-year average. In the north of the region (such as in Henan, Anhui, and Jiangsu provinces) winter wheat is sowed in October and harvested in late May and early June; in the south, early rice is planted in late April and early May. The agroclimatic indicators show that rainfall and PAR were below the average, while the temperature anomaly reached 0.8⁰C. The NDVI clusters and profiles show that crop condition fluctuated between October and April in most parts of the area, but nevertheless remained above average during most of the monitoring period. In mid-April, due to low rainfall, crop condition in the whole region decreased. In the south of Jiangsu and east of Hunan, crop condition was persistently above the recent five-year average, as confirmed by the map of the maximum VCI. The fraction of cropped arable land(CALF) is 1% above average. The biomass production potential (BOMSS) was below average in most of the region, particularly in the north of Guangdong, Fujian, and Zhejiang provinces.

Figure4.10. Crop condition Lower Yangtze region, January-April 2015

(a)Crop condition development graph based on NDVI