Accessibility to consistent, subnational, spatial information on crops globally will be hugely beneficial to researchers and policy makers. Researchers need this data to evaluate the benefits and costs of adopting new crop and livestock technologies, estimate the impact of climate change on agriculture calculate yield gaps, and analyse the historical evolution of farming systems. Policymakers, donors, and investors rely on spatially explicit crop data to better target agricultural and rural development investments and inform policy decisions.
To address this need, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has developed a Spatial Production Allocation Model (SPAM). SPAM generates highly disaggregated, fine-resolution, crop-specific production data using the data fusion method. Datasets for the years 2000, 2005, 2010, 2017, and 2020 are available as open-access resources on the SPAM website (www.mapspam.info) and Dataverse.
During this webinar, speakers discussed SPAM data and products within the broader context of global cropping system mapping perspective and history. They also identified key challenges that still need to be overcome in global crop mapping community, and shared insights on the future of improving the global cropping data products. Finally, they outlined the collective mechanisms and efforts needed—including open-access data platforms, standard protocols, and consistent financial support—to produce high-quality datasets that serve the needs of researchers, practitioners, and policymakers.
