Agriculture Maps
Ever wonder where your food comes from? We have 6 agriculture maps to show you the answer.
Almost every bit of the food we eat is grown and gathered on farms. Humans have learned how to change the environment to most-effectively grow crops. We’ve also learned to produce more crops with less land. But a number of issues threatens agriculture sustainability – population increase, climate change and water stress.
Feast your eyes on these agriculture maps and learn what the future of farming holds.
1. Agricultural Exposure to Water Stress Map
Agriculture takes advantage of the nutrients in the soil and the amount of water that is available. Water is the key. When crops aren’t getting enough water, farmers have to find ways to bring water to the crops. This is called irrigation. Irrigation can change dry land into fertile farmland. To get water needed for crops, we build reservoirs and drill deep wells. Irrigation is a big part of farming.
The World Resources Institute has mapped out where these water stresses exist in the world. The Agriculture Exposure to Water Stress Map measures the ratio of local withdrawal (demand) over the available water (supply). Countries like India, Morocco, Spain and the Philippines face high cropland water stress.. Other major commodity crops are visualized like coffee, rice and cereals.
2. Feeding the World Map
Crop production will have to double by 2050 to fulfill the needs of a growing and increasingly affluent population. Meeting this challenge will be difficult but not impossible, according to the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment
Can Global Crop Production Meet Future Demands? The University of Minnesota is exploring current crop yields and solutions to the biggest problems in agriculture. This is the purpose of the Feeding the World Story Map. In order to tackle this growing problem, we will have to:
- Make croplands more productive
- Increase water use efficiency
- Change crop use & diet
3. World Bank Agricultural Land (% of land area)
World Bank has a unique set of Agriculture Maps showing historical and future farming trends. Agriculture maps include:
- Agricultural irrigated land (% of total agricultural land)
- Agricultural land (% of land area)
- Agricultural machinery (tractors per 100 sq km of arable land)
- Agriculture, value added (% of GDP)
- Agriculture, value added per worker (constant 2005 US$)
4. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations Hunger Map
One in seven people on Earth live on less than one dollar each day
Hunger means going without an adequate meal for days. It prevents adults from working and stunts the growth of babies. It affects one out of nine people every day. The majority of hunger issues are in developing countries.
The United Nations is combating hunger with its Millennium Development Goal (MDG) program. The UN has set a target to halve in the developing world. The interactive UN Hunger Map raises awareness about global hunger.
5. ISRIC Soil Grids 1KM
Plants live in dirt. Rich topsoil is filled of living things like bugs, worms, roots and dead leaves. In the soil business, this is called organic material. Let’s say topsoil comprised of 10% organic material and the rest sand and rocks. The nutrients that plants take up in their roots comes from that 10% organic material. Without organic material, hardly any plants could grow. And it takes centuries for topsoil to grow.
But other factors come into play for crop production. Soil texture (sand %, silt % and clay %) is important because it influences nutrient retention. Cation exchange capacity indicates how the soil can supply nutrients like calcium, magnesium and potassium.
ISRIC’s 1km Global Soil Map helps with agriculture decision-making. Some of the greatest soil maps can be found with properties like taxonomy, organic carbon, pH in H2O, sand %, silt %, clay %, cation exchange capacity, bulk density and coarse fragments
6. FAO Global Spatial Database of Agricultural Land-use Statistics
Agro-maps breaks down primary food crops by sub-national administrative districts. The information is aggregated by crop production, area harvested and crop yields.
About 40% of the global workforce is in agriculture. That’s 1.3 billion people. This means that agriculture is the world’s largest provider of jobs. In the FAO Global Spatial Database and Agricultural Land-use Interactive Map, you get a limited yet very important component of land use.
Agriculture Maps for Decision Making
Agriculture feeds the globe. We can see which crop types are suited for different environments in this list of agriculture maps.
Farming also faces a number of problems – population increase, climate change, hunger and water stress. Agriculture maps can convey this information to make knowledgeable decisions.
Instantly, you have become more knowledgeable about agricultural issues with these 6 agriculture maps.
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