The drought monitoring model at seedling stage under the condition of lowcoverage vegetation is established based on NDVI with MODIS and soil moisture data. The model combines soil adjusted vegetation index (SAVI) with temperature condition index (TCI) on the basis of the correlation analysis of observed soil moisture and relative humidity. Comparison between thermal inertia method and SAVITCI method based on vegetation supply water index method is conducted. The results indicate that the SAVITCI method is better in monitoring largearea crops at seedling stage in Liaoning Province