October to January covers the growing period of the main (wet season) rice crop, and the early stage of the second (dry season) rice in Cambodia. The fraction of cropped arable land was consistent with the average of the previous five years. For the period under consideration, the CropWatch agroclimatic indicators show markedly above average rainfall and a slight increase in PAR, and temperature increased by 1.3°C compared to average. Favorableconditions increased the biomass accumulation expectations by 5%in comparison with the last five years. Sufficient rainfall isbeneficial for the sowing and emergence of the second rice. Vegetation condition indices (VCIx) are very high (>1.0) in Banteay Meanchey andBattambang in the northwestern part of the country, the major rice cultivation area in the To nle Sap basin.

Figure3.19. Cambodia crop condition, October2014-January 2015

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

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