The reporting period (July to October) covers the sowing of the Main Wet Season rice in Cambodia, which was started from late June (depend on the region and climate condition), and the growing and harvesting stage of maize and short web-season rice. 

Nationwide, crop condition was mostly below the average of the recent five years in early July and in  September. There was a 8% drop of rainfall (1090mm) and relatively cool weather compared with average (TEMP -0.8°C) but sunshine was up 1%. The drop in BIOMSS reaches -4% while the Cropped Arable Land Fraction decreased -0.1%.

According to the VCIx distribution map, fair crop condition (VCIx>0.5) occurs almost everywhere in the country, except in some sparse spots south of Tonle Sap (less than1%). Over 80% percent of the cropped areas show good condition (VCIx>0.8). 

NDVI clusters show the same pattern as VCIx. 28.4% of the cropland (most of which is located around Tonle Sap) shows average condition. About 50% show fluctuations before September but recovered since then. For 9.5% of areas near Phnom Penh that display unsatisfied condition compared with average, the effect may be due to cloud contamination.

Regional analysis

Based on climate differences, two regions can be distinguished in Cambodia. Weather in the Central Tonle-Sap plain (especially rainfall and temperature) is mainly influenced by Tonle-Sap. In the Upland areas, climate conditions are based on the monsoon.

Upland areas and CentralTonle-Sap plain

Due to the difference of climate type and driving factors, two regions underwent different conditions in the current monitoringperiod. The upland areas, crops were clearly below average before September, which may result - in part - from poor satellite imagery, and recovered to average since then. In the Tonle-Sap plain crop condition remained unsatisfactory throughout the period due to poor weather condition, in particular RAIN 20% below average and a -1.0°C drop in TEMP below average. Both AEZs had above-average RADPAR (1.3% and 0.2%, reaspectively). Deficit of water and cool weather led to an about 4% decrease in BIOMSS in both region.

Overall, CropWatch puts the rice production estimate for the country +0.2% above that of last year.

 Figure 3.19(a) Phenology Model

图.X Crop condition development graph based on NDVI_Cambodia

 Maximum VCI

Spatial distribution of NDVI profiles

Crop condition development graph based on NDVI_Central Tonle-Sap plain

 Crop condition development graph based on NDVI_Upland areas

Table 3.40. CropWatch-estimated rice production for Cambodia in 2018 (thousands tons)