The reporting period coincides with the harvesting of all crops, as indicated by the decreasing national NDVI profiles, which reach their minimum around February. Rainfall is above average (+12%), while radiation and temperature were globally average.Compared with the average of the recent five years, the biomass accumulation potential dropped 7%, which is contradicted by a rather favorable average valuefor maximum VCI (0.82). In fact, the VCI maps show favorable condition severy where but in the Sahelian northernmost areas, with especially favorable conditions in the northeast. The differences between indicators result from contrasting conditions in the southern third of the country. NDVI profiles wereclose to average in about 90% of the country, and they departed little from there ference value throughout the October to January period. In contrast, while globally average, they fluctuated a lot in the south, with low values in mid-October and early December in Kogi, Edo, and Ondo States, due to reduced precipitation, as mentioned in Chapter 1. Altogether, crop condition at harvest is favorable, but less so in some southern areas.

Figure3.22. Nigeria crop condition, October2014-January 2015