Generally,crops in Argentina experienced favorable conditions from October 2015 to midJanuary 2016. The harvest of winter wheat was concluded by midJanuary, and summer crops (maize and soybean) approached the peak of thegrowing season. Agroclimatic conditions were generally favorable for Argentinawith 24% above average RAIN; accordingly, TEMP was 1.7 °C and RADPAR was 10% below average. Majoragricultural provinces experienced similar patterns but with differentdepartures from average RAIN, ranging from 0% to about 80% above average.Abundant rainfall accompanied by well below average radiation occurred inCorrientes, La Pampa, Misiones, and San Luis; this delayed farm operations andhampered the growth of summer crops. Sufficient rainfall (about 10% aboveaverage) in Buenos Aires, Cordoba, Entre Rios, and Santa Fe was beneficialfor the development of soybean and maize crops. BIOMSS in each province wasabove average except for Salta and Chaco where the indicator was 6% belowaverage and average, respectively.

Accordingto the NDVI development profiles, crop condition was above the five-yearaverage and at the same level as the previous year. The national average VCIxat 0.82 also confirms good crop condition. Areas in the west of MarChiquita Lake were the only regions with continuously below average crop conditionduring the monitoring period. A great diversity of crop conditions was observedas shown in the NDVI departure from the five-year average clustering and thecorresponding profiles: in northern Argentina, San Luis, central BuenosAires, and northern La Pampa crop condition was below average beforeNovember but it improved thereafter. In contrast, the condition of cropsdeteriorated in southern Santa Fe and the neighboring regions from November2015. CALF for Argentina was 8% above average, indicating an increased summercrops planting area.

Based on thetime series of NDVI data over the whole winter wheat growing season, winterwheat production was revised down to 10.7 million tons, 11% below that of the2014-2015 growing season. The harvest area and yield for winterwheat was both below 2014-2015 (See Annex B Table B.1).

Figure3.5. Argentina crop condition, October 2015-January 2016

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

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