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August 2020 CropWatch Bulletin is based mainly on current remote sensing inputs in addition to detailed and spatially accurate reference data about crops and their management. Focusing on the months of April to July 2020, chapters cover global, national, and regional level agroclimatic conditions and the condition of crops that were growing during this time. For China, the bulletin presents crop conditions for each of seven key agro-ecological zones. The focus section reports on the estimate by CropWatch for maize, rice, wheat and soybeans production in 2020, recent disaster events with an impact on agriculture, and the possibility of an El Niño event.
Key messages from the report:
- Agroclimatic patterns: global rainfall was above average (5%), temperature was close to average (-0.1°C), and sunshine was 1% below average. Potential biomass was close to average globally. Few extreme weather events were observed during the monitoring period and agronomic conditions were quite favorable.
- China: rainfall is 4% higher than average, temperature is slightly lower by 0.1°C, the sunshine is lower by 2%, the national potential biomass level is slightly lower by 4% affected by heavy rainfall in the South China. The crop output of the country is expected to increase by 0.2% in 2020, including a 2.7% increase in the total production of the winter crops and a 0.5% decrease in the total production of the summer crops.
- Global crop production: CropWatch estimates the global 2020 production of the major commodities at 1,068 million tons of maize, 729 million tons of wheat and 325 million tons of soybeans, up 1.2%, 1.8%, and 0.2%, respectively. However, rice production was 745 million tons, down 1.1%.
- Disaster: the outbreak of desert locusts in East Africa, Middle East and southwest Asia is still not under control either. Ample rainfall keeps maintaining a favorable environment for them to spread even further. However, like COVID-19, it has very limited impact on global agricultural production.
Introduction
This CropWatch bulletin summarizes global crop condition developments and agroclimatic factors from January 1st to April 30, 2019 through 4 zoom in from a global overview of agroclimatic indicators (Chapter 1) to detailed descriptions of crop and environmental conditions in large production zones (Chapter 2), to individual country analyses covering 42 major producers and exporters including agro-ecological zones (Chapter 3) and China (Chapter 4). A special focus section is included in Chapter 5, presents crop production for 2010, disaster events and an update on El Niño. This first part of the report includes the cover, table of contents, abbreviations, a short overview of the different sections of the bulletin and executive summary.DownloadChapter 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.DownloadChapter 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), maximum vegetation condition index (VCIx), and minimum vegetation health index (VHIn)—to describe crop and environmental conditions in six global major production zones (MPZ): West Africa, North America, South America, South and southeast Asia, Western Europe, and Central Europe to western Russia. (See also Annex B for more information about these zones.)DownloadChapter 3. Main producing and exporting countries
Building on the global patterns presented in previous chapters, this chapter assesses the situation of crops in 42 key countries that represent the global major producers and exporters or otherwise are of global or CropWatch relevance. First, the overview section (3.1) pays attention to all countries worldwide, to provide some spatial and thematic detail to the overall features described in section 1.1. In section 3.2, more detail is provided for each of the CropWatch monitored countries, including analyses by key agro-ecological zones within the country. Additional information about indicators per country is provided in Annex A.DownloadChapter 4. China
After a brief overview of the agroclimatic and agronomic conditions in China over the reporting period (section 4.1), Chapter 4 then presents China's crop prospects (section 4.2), describes the situation by region, focusing on the seven most productive agro-ecological regions of the east and south: Northeast China, Inner Mongolia, Huanghuaihai, Loess region, Lower Yangtze, Southwest China, and Southern China (section 4.3). Section 4.4 provides a closer look at the flooding impacts in the Lower Yangtze River Basin and section 4.5 describes trade prospects of major cereals and soybean. Additional information on the agro-climatic indicators for agriculturally important Chinese provinces is listed in table A.11 in Annex A.DownloadChapter 5. Focus and perspectives
Building on the CropWatch analyses presented in chapters 1 through 4, this chapter presents first early outlook of crop production for 2019 (section 5.1), as well as sections on recent disaster events (section 5.2), and an update on El Niño (5.3).DownloadAnnex A. Agroclimatic indicators
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.DownloadAnnex B. Quick reference guide to CropWatch indicators, spatial units and methodologies
Annex B 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 and methodology to determine the severity of the occurrence.Download
