Agro-MAPS: Mapping sub national land use statistics on a global scale

1
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
2
Overview

• 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
• Concluding remarks

3
Agro-MAPS Origins

• LU information needed for specific global
  applications
• IFPRI -- Impacts of new technologies nutrient
  balances, ..
• SAGE -- Climate change human impacts on
  ecosystem services, ..
• FAO -- Land degradation, farming systems, early
  warning, ....
• Informal Consortium (Agro-MAPS)
• 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)

4
Targeted FAO applications
sub national land-use/ farming systems mapping
Global information early warning -GIEWS
Farming systems Poverty- 2001

• 2007
• climate change adaptation/ mitigation
• payment for environmental services
• investments in irrigation
• sustainable land management (SLM)

Land degradation assessment-LADA
5
Key Decisions
Maize

• 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!

OPPORTUNITY Seek partners to develop synergies
for further improvements ---data gathering,
content, formats, harmonization, long-term
development, ...
6
Challenges of implementation

• Data Compilation/ Harmonization
• Multiple sources ( metadata)
• Ambiguities (-, ., 0, blank, NA, ..)
• Boundaries (variations - extent, names, codes
  SALB, FIPS, NUTS, GAUL, ad-hoc, ..)
• Crop codes

• Data access/ dissemination
• CD-ROM (2006)
• Web site development (interactive, 850 Mb data)
  distributed update
• IPR (Agro-MAPS EUROSTAT, data vs boundary
  info, ..)

7
Geocoding
Match codes appearing in tables and maps
8
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

9
Status Data coverage

• Contents
• 134 Countries - 92 of the world land surface
  covered
• Some data without maps
• Updates/corrections (via publications
  collaborators projects, .. public feedback

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
10
Status Data quality
Agro-MAPS
gt FAOSTAT
lt FAOSTAT
FAOSTAT

• Use metadata to consult original sources
• Develop better indicators for data sharing

11
Web-based LU info system

• Web site enhancements
• rapid update
• best resolution display
• Derived info products to support applications
• major crop combinations
• raster versions

Interactive display BY REGION
12
On-line query
Find best matching shapefiles!
13
Download
14
Site updates adjustments

• Site Administrator only
• Rapid update
• datasets,
• layers
• All Users
• Adjust parameters
• crop combination tools

15
Generate a CD of the site
16
Locally important crops
Burkina Faso
Important crops
17
Agro-MAPS Added value

• 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 -gt LU
  systems mapping

18
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

19
Development of LU Indicators

• 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)

20
Yield gap sorghum (kg/ha) - BFA
YIELD GAP -- Difference between potential yields
and actual yields available from Agro-MAPS.
21
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
22
Harvested vs suitable area
Harvested area
Highly suitable area
23
Harvested vs suitable area
24
Harvested vs total cropland
Harvested area
total cropland area
25
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
26
Land use systems mapping

• Distinct geographic assemblages of
• the natural resources base,
• current land use and management, and
• the socio-economic setting
• Facilitates territorial vs. sectoral policies
  planning
• Global ? sub national scales

Farming systems Poverty- 2001
27
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)

28
National LU systems mapping
Senegal
Agro-MAPS data

• indicators to suit end-user needs
• land tenure, plot characteristics
• orientation/intensity of production
• prices/ subsidies, credit access

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
29
LU systems attributes
LADA -- National land degradation assessment -
Senegal
30
LU systems degradation
area affected by land degradation
31
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
32
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
33
For more info ...
webstats
http//www.fao.org/landandwater/agll/agromaps/inte
ractive/page.jspx
34
Concluding remarks

• Agro-MAPS ready access now
• to sub national LU data (vs national aggregates)
• derived information, on global scale
• 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
• Info gaps remain
• time series data no data for some countries
• seeking collaborative arrangements for future sub
  national LU data compilation (not just statistics)