Crops in the South America MPZ experienced favorable conditions fromOctober 2015 to mid January 2016 (Figure 2.3). The winter wheat harvest wascompleted at the end of 2015, and currently, soybean is at its flowering stageand maize is at the silking stage. Abundant rainfall (39% above average)favoured the development of soybean and maize although temperature and RADPARwere slightly below average for this reporting period. Altogether, cropsbenefited from the favorable agroclimatic conditions and BIOMSS for the wholeMPZ was 19% above average.

According to the spatial pattern and profiles of rainfall departure fromaverage, rainfall was slightly above average (20mm or more) over most ofArgentina as well as the northern part of MPZ. Southern Paraguay Missiones inArgentina and southern Brazil (including Rio Grande Do Sul, Parana and SantaCatarina) experienced continuously well above average rainfall. Air temperaturein the MPZ was below average from October except for the most northern partcovering southern Mato Grosso, Minas Gerais and Goais as shown in temperatureclusters and profiles (Figure 2.3). High temperature with almost average rainfallin those areas resulted in the below average potential biomass, which isconfirmed by the low value of minimum VHI: crops suffered from water stressduring the monitoring period.

Although extreme weather conditions occurred in parts of the MPZ, thecondition of summer crops was still comparable with five-year average as shownin the VCIx map and the high overall average VCIx value (0.87) for the MPZ.CALF for the MPZ was 98%, an increase of 9% from the previous five-yearaverage. About 2% of the total arable land was intentionally kept fallow,mostly between Bahia Blanca and Santa Rosa, to encourage more sustainableagricultural practices. In general though, well above averagerainfall provided necessary soil moisture for the development of soybeanand maize. 

Figure 2.3. South America MPZ:Agroclimatic and agronomic indicators, October 2015-January 2016