Russia presented poor crop condition from October 2014 to January 2015 (VCIx=0.60). This reporting period covered the sowing of winter wheat, while maize and spring wheat were harvested before October. Compared with average conditions, Russia experienced slightly below average temperature (-0.6°C) and freezing weather conditions, but considerably above average precipitation (+7%). Mainly due to low temperature, a biomass drop of 11%below average is currently projected. As for the NDVI patterns, significantly below average values occurred in more than 85% of Russia's agricultural area between October and January. Only few areas concentrated in the southwest of Russia had favorable NDVI values after December (including Krasnodar and Stavropol). In most parts of southern Russia, including Volgograd, Saratov, and Orenburg, the crop condition is very poor, with a maximum VCI below 0.5. During this monitoring period, as shown by the crop condition development graph, NDVI was significantlybelow values for the recent five-year average. The low NDVI values result from freezing weather conditions, which affected the sowing of winter wheat.

Figure3.27. Russia 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