The crops in Indonesia generally showed poor condition between October and January. The monitoring period covers theharvesting stage of the dry season maize and rice, while wet season crops arecurrently in the field.

Compared with the recent average,precipitation was significantly below average (-24%) while the country enjoyedfavorable PAR with values about 6% higher than average. As a result of theongoing El Niño, the rainy season started late in Indonesia: dry and warm conditions had negative effects on rice planting, resulting in a drop of 21% inBIOMASS compared with the recent five-year average, which is confirmed by thenational NDVI profiles showing poor crop condition in October and November(Figure 3.15).  

According to the spatial patterns of NDVIprofiles, NDVI behavior was very poor in most parts of Sumatra andcentral Kalimantan island during the whole monitoring period, and cropcondition in Java and eastern islands of Indonesia recovered to average orabove average in December and January.  Altogether, CropWatch estimatesthat dry conditions have caused yield reduction to this season’s crops.

Figure3.15. Indonesia crop condition, October2015-January 2016

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

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