Agro-MAPS: Mapping sub national
land use statistics on a global scale
H. George, I. Verbeke and S. Corsi
Land and Water Division, FAO
Wye City Group Workshop on
Statistics on Rural Development & Agricultural Household Income
ROME, 11-12 June 2009
H. George, FAO
Overview
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Agro-MAPS
• Origins & key characteristics
• Value addition
Land use issues and rural development
Selected land-use applications
• Development of land-use indicators
• Mapping & characterization of land-use
systems
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Concluding remarks
H. George, FAO
Agro-MAPS: Origins
LU information needed for specific global applications
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IFPRI -- Impacts of new technologies; nutrient balances, ..
SAGE -- Climate change; human impacts on ecosystem services, ..
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FAO -- Land degradation, farming systems, early warning, ....
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Informal Consortium (Agro-MAPS)
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Meetings (2002; 2003); pool data holdings
CIAT (joined in 2003); IRRI, ILRI – major contributions
Funding: within existing programs; MEA (core indicator data set)
FAO contributions: coordinated through interdepartmental
working group (SPATL)
H. George, FAO
Key Decisions
Maize
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Focus on food crops; globally/ regionally
important; most recent data; time series?
Production, Harvested area; Crop yields
Geo-referenced; admin 1 and 2
Global coverage, largest countries
Pool existing data holdings & published
sources (e.g. Ag census)
Harmonize data (codes; units; but no
corrections); include reference to data
sources
No long-term commitments!
FAOSTAT – 57 countries
OPPORTUNITY: Seek partners to develop synergies
for further improvements ---data gathering, content,
formats, harmonization, long-term development, ...
Agro-MAPS – 5690 units
H. George, FAO
Challenges of implementation
Data Compilation/ Harmonization
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Multiple sources (± metadata)
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Ambiguities (-, ., 0, blank, NA, ..)
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Boundaries (variations - extent,
names, codes – SALB, FIPS,
NUTS, GAUL, ad-hoc, ..)
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Crop codes
SAGE
CIAT
FAO
IFPRI
Data access/ dissemination
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CD-ROM (2006)
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Web site development (interactive,
850 Mb data) & distributed update
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IPR (“Agro-MAPS”; EUROSTAT,
data vs boundary info, ..)
H. George, FAO
Geocoding
NAME1
Region 1
Region 1
Region 1
Region 2
Region 2
Region 2
Region 1
Region 1
Region 1
Region 2
Region 2
Region 2
NAME2
Ariana
Ben Arous (Tunis Sud)
Tunis
Bizerte
Nabul
Saghuan
Ariana
Ben Arous (Tunis Sud)
Tunis
Bizerte
Nabul
Saghuan
CODE
TUN001001
TUN001002
TUN001003
TUN002001
TUN002002
TUN002003
TUN001001
TUN001002
TUN001003
TUN002001
TUN002002
TUN002003
ITEM_CODE YEAR ELEMENT_CO DATA COMMENTS
44
1994
031
2100
44
1994
031
1700
44
1994
031
300
44
1994
031
6000
44
1994
031
17300
44
1994
031
2800
44
1994
051
1900
44
1994
051
1500
44
1994
051
400
44
1994
051
5400
44
1994
051
18600
44
1994
051
3400
Match codes appearing in
tables and maps
H. George, FAO
Boundaries: A X-cutting issue
CHALLENGE: compile & distribute all aggregated data and
their corresponding boundary maps
MALAWI
FAO
IFPRI
•Different boundaries from different sources
•Differences reported for different crops; year;
•Disputed Boundaries
H. George, FAO
Status: Data coverage
Contents
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134 Countries - 92% of the
world land surface covered
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Some data without maps
 Updates/corrections (via
publications; collaborators;
projects, .. public feedback
130 – admin 1
Region
Crops
Years
Africa
72
1981-2008
Asia
20
1970-2001
Europe
18
1975-2001
Near-East in Asia
72
1984-2001
LAC
45
1984-2001
North America
26
1970-2002
Oceania
30
1982-1997
59 - admin2
H. George, FAO
Status: Data quality
Agro-MAPS
> FAOSTAT
perfect
agreement
< FAOSTAT
FAOSTAT
•Use ‘metadata’ to consult original sources
•Develop better indicators for data sharing
H. George, FAO
Web-based LU info system
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Interactive display BY REGION
Web site enhancements
• rapid update;
• best resolution display
Derived info products to
support applications
• major crop combinations
• raster versions
H. George, FAO
On-line query
Find best matching shapefiles!
% Data displayable
H. George, FAO
Download
Download options
•CSV, dbf, ..
•All statistical data (by country, region)
•All statistical data for a specific query
•Shapefiles (except Europe)
H. George, FAO
Site updates & adjustments
Site Administrator only
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Rapid update
• datasets,
• layers
All Users
 Adjust parameters
• crop combination tools
H. George, FAO
Generate a CD of the site
H. George, FAO
Locally important crops
Preview time series data BY COUNTRY
Data sources
Burkina Faso
Important crops
Burkina Faso
H. George, FAO
Agro-MAPS: Added value
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Global compilation of sub national data
• versus national aggregates – FAOSTAT
• global analyses & perspective studies
• geographic targeting within countries
Geo-referenced formats
• vector; raster for easier integration with user
applications (under development)
Derived information – LU characterization
• indicators on rural development issues
• locally important crops or crop groups -> LU
systems mapping
H. George, FAO
Land issues & Rural Development
MDG1
 LU changes to combat food insecurity & poverty
 High bioenergy demand & indirect LU changes
 Land scarcity
 Large scale cropland acquisitions
 Climate change impact on land suitability and use
 Increasing urbanization
 Highly variable food prices; trade
MDG7
 land degradation (including forest)
 sustainability of agro-ecosystems/ biodiversity
 food versus environmental tradeoffs
H. George, FAO
Development of LU Indicators
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Percent changes
• crop production; per capita production
• area harvested; per capita area harvested
• yields (NB: influences due to management; rainfall)
• yield gap
Proportions
• harvested area to total suitable area (NB: differs from
arable land to total land area)
• harvested area to cropland area (i.e. cropping intensity)
Differences
• Potential vs Actual yields (e.g. field trials, Agro-MAPS)
H. George, FAO
Yield gap – sorghum (kg/ha) - BFA
YIELD GAP -- Difference between potential yields and actual yields
available from Agro-MAPS.
H. George, FAO
Yield gap map
(sorghum, Kg/ha)
Yields from field trials versus yields from Agro-MAPS
For geographic
targeting of
regions where
productivity gains
are possible
H. George, FAO
Harvested vs suitable area
Harvested area
Highly suitable area
H. George, FAO
Harvested vs suitable area
H. George, FAO
Harvested vs total cropland
Harvested area
total cropland area
H. George, FAO
Cropping intensity
Harvested area to total cropland (i.e. cropping intensity)
It is useful for estimating future food production under given conditions of the availability of land suitable for
cropping and population growth
H. George, FAO
Land use systems mapping
• Distinct geographic assemblages of
i. the natural resources base,
ii. current land use and management, and
iii. the socio-economic setting
• Facilitates ‘territorial’ vs. sectoral
policies & planning
• Global  sub national scales
Farming
systems &
Poverty2001
H. George, FAO
Locally important crops
•Set of crop(s) having the highest relative percentages of total harvested
area which together just exceed a predetermined threshold percentage
(75%) of the total harvested area for each administrative unit.
•“Mixed’ label if the number of crops is greater than 4 (user selectable)
National LU systems mapping
Senegal
RESOURCE BASE
ENTERPRISE
SOCIO-ECONOMIC CONTEXT
(production conditions)
(use of resources – land use)
(explanatory factors – influence
land use management practices)
AEZ suitability
crops & management
population density
soil; climate; terrain
livestock & management
land cover
fishing & management
infrastructure (access to
advisory services;
markets)
land availability
groundwater
integrate
Agro-MAPS data
District-level
farming systems map
scale independent framework
created by spatial integration of relevant data for each of the 3
major land-use characteristics with the aid of geographic information
systems as well as with input of expert local knowledge
± indicators to suit end-user needs
•land tenure, plot characteristics
•orientation/intensity of production
•prices/ subsidies, credit access
H. George, FAO
LU systems & attributes
LADA -- National land degradation assessment - Senegal
LU systems & degradation
% area affected by land degradation
Agro-MAPS: User survey
Climate change
•GIS-based cropland GHG inventory for Burkina Faso and Tanzania
•C sequestration calculation
•MSc research project aiming to upscale the emissions of the ozone depleting gas
methyl bromide
•research on carbon sequestration in croplands
Land-use (policies; assessment; planning)
Land use assesment in calculating arid and semi arid land area in Kenya
Plantation planning
Comparing yields between SSA and LA
Biofuels policies impact on land use
For presentation of sugarcane production ares under cultivation and yield in India
For research Purpose- Land-livestock planning on country scale
Data Preparedness for response to emergency
seminar on food security
Academic and scientific
Modelling exercise on water use
Research on Crop Growth Modeling
biofuels research
Change in indigenous land practices since 1950
H. George, FAO
Agro-MAPS: User survey
Environment analyses and management
Geospatial analysis for evaluating North American and European Union ecological
areas for pesticide dissipation studies project
Ecological Region analysis North America and EU
Establish GIS database for environment management
Investment and marketing
Investment research
Preparing analyses for sales department
Size markets in Argentina and Brazil
soyabean production in Madhya Pradesh research
researching oil palm industry in DRC
Gain understanding of African agricultural imports/exports to assist my work in
Mozambique as a volunteer consultant to sustenance farmers
food production and consumption in asia
H. George, FAO
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webstats
http://www.fao.org/landandwater/agll/agromaps/interactive/page.jspx
H. George, FAO
Concluding remarks
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Agro-MAPS: ready access now
• to sub national LU data (vs national aggregates)
• derived information, on global scale
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Facilitates development of
• LU indicators of relevance to MDG1 and 7 issues in
rural development
• LU systems maps allowing a territorial vs a sectoral
approach to policy formulation and planning
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Info gaps remain
• time series data; no data for some countries
• seeking collaborative arrangements for future sub
national LU data compilation (not just statistics)
H. George, FAO