The CropWatch hierarchical approach for crop production monitoring involves the use of specific environmental and agricultural indicators on different scales, using the combined information to assess global, regional, and national (as well as sub-national) crop condition, production, and agricultural trends. The analysis covers the following four levels:

Global — Inputs include rainfall, temperature, photosynthetically active radiation, and potential biomass. Outputs on this level are assessments of environmental indices for sixty crop production system zones.

Regional — Inputs include the vegetation health index, uncropped arable land, cropping intensity, and maximum values for the vegetation condition index during the growing season. Outputs are information on agricultural patterns, farming intensity, and biomass trends in six major production zones in the world.

National — Inputs are NDVI, crop cultivation area, and time profile clustering. Outputs are information on cropland use intensity, crop condition, yield, and production, for each of thirty key countries and China, together representing at least 80 percent of global production of the major cereals and soybean.

Sub-national — For large countries, analysis is performed on a sub-national level. In the case of China, additional information on crop planting structure is analyzed. Outputs on the sub-national level are similar to those on the national level, but with more detailed information

For the analysis, each level is covered with specific indicators adapted to its scale, while the next broader level provides the overall background. Using the outputs on the four levels, a synthesis of crop production and crop condition estimates is published quarterly in the CropWatch bulletin.