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August 2015 CropWatch bulletin (Vol. 15, No. 3)

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The current reporting period from April to July 2015 covers the harvest of winter crops and the growth of summer crops in the northern hemisphere, as well as the growth and harvest of winter crops in the southern hemisphere. After providing an overview of global agroclimatic conditions with some typical agronomic impacts in the major production zones (MPZs), the bulletin looks in detail at the major producers, including China, focusing on maize, rice, wheat, and soybeans. A particular focus area for this bulletin is production and trends in North America. The bulletin also includes a new section (4.2) on the impacts of pests and diseases on agriculture in China
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Introduction

The current reporting period from April to July 2015 covers the harvest of winter crops and the growth of summer crops in the northern hemisphere, as well as the growth and harvest of winter crops in the southern hemisphere. After providing an overview of global agroclimatic conditions with some typical agronomic impacts in the major production zones (MPZs), the bulletin looks in detail at the major producers, including China, focusing on maize, rice, wheat, and soybeans. A particular focus area for this bulletin is production and trends in North America. The bulletin also includes a new section (4.2) on the impacts of pests and diseases on agriculture in China.
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Chapter 1. Global agroclimatic patterns

Chapter 1 describes the CropWatch agroclimatic indicators for rainfall (RAIN), temperature (TEMP), and radiation (RADPAR), along with the agronomic indicator for potential biomass (BIOMSS) for sixty-five global Mapping and Reporting Units (MRU). Indicator values for all MRUs are provided in Annex A.
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Chapter 2. Crop and environmental conditions in major production zones

Chapter 2 presents the same indicators—RAIN, TEMP, RADPAR, and BIOMSS—used in Chapter 1 and combines them with agronomic indicators—cropped arable land fraction (CALF) and maximum vegetation condition index (VCIx)—to describe crop and environmental conditions in six global major production zones (MPZ).
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Chapter 3. Main producing and exporting countries

Building on the global patterns presented in previous chapters, this chapter assesses the situation of crops in 30 key countries that represent the global major producers and exporters or otherwise are of global or CropWatch relevance. In addition, the overview section (3.1) pays attention to other countries, to provide some spatial and thematic detail to the overall features described in section 1.1. In section 3.2, maps and figures for all 30 counties monitored present NDVI-based crop condition development, maximum VCI, and spatial NDVI patterns with associated NDVI profiles. Additional information about the various indicators by country and 2015 production estimates for Argentina, Brazil, Canada, and the United States are provided in Annexes A and B, respectively.
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Chapter 4. China

Chapter 4 presents a detailed analysis for China, focusing on the seven most productive agro-ecological regions of the east and south. After a brief overview of the agro-climatic and agronomic conditions over the monitoring period (section 4.1), a new bulletin section (4.2) describes the situation with pests and diseases that are affecting agricultural crops in China. Section 4.3 then presents an outlook for 2015 production of maize, rice, wheat, and soybean, while section 4.4 presents analyses by region. Additional information on the agroclimatic indicators for agriculturally important Chinese provinces are listed in table A.11 in Annex A.
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Chapter 5. Focus and perspectives This

This focus section complements CropWatch analyses presented in chapters 1 through 4 by presenting additional information about topics of interest to global agriculture. Section 5.1 presents a production outlook for 2015, while the other three sections focus on disaster events (5.2), agricultural developments in North America (section 5.3), and an update on El Niño (5.4).
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Annex A. Agroclimatic indicators and BIOMSS

Tables in this Annex provide additional information about the agroclimatic indicators—RAIN, TEMP, and RADPAR—as well as BIOMSS for the various CropWatch spatial units. Those units include the Monitoring and Reporting Units (MRU); the thirty-one main producing and exporting countries; and regions or provinces within large countries—Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, Kazakhstan, Russia, and the United States; and China.
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Annex B. 2015 production estimates

Annex B includes tables with 2015 production estimates for Argentina, Brazil, Canada, and the United States.
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Annex C. Quick reference guide to CropWatch indicators, spatial units, and production estimation methodology

Annex C presents a brief overview of the CropWatch indicators and spatial units (including the MRUs, MPZs, and countries), along with a description of the CropWatch production estimation methodology.
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