6 Amazing Global Agriculture Maps – Farming Visualized

Agriculture Maps

Visualizing Farming with 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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Forestry industry to trial drones

A Schiebel Drone Helicopter that Transpower are using to check the national grid. Photo: Greg Bowker.

Forestry crown research institute Scion will next month trial the use of drones for use in forestry management and hopes to be an early adopter of imminent rule changes allowing them to be flown beyond line of sight.

Scion has teamed up with Raglan-based Aeronavics to field test unmanned aerial vehicles mounted with interchangeable remote sensing technologies which can transmit vital information on various aspects of forestry management such as tree health and pests.

It's thought the technologies may also prove useful in biosecurity surveillance and eradication operations, along with fire management.

Scion science leader Bryan Graham says the public and privately-funded trials this year are about validating the drone technology which will have far-reaching implications beyond just the forestry industry.

Read more:
•New Zealand considers regulatory framework for drones to operate beyond-line-of-sight
• Transpower's spy in the sky


New Zealand is at the forefront of testing unmanned aerial flights and is set to have the world's first regulatory framework that allows beyond line of sight flights.

The Civil Aviation Authority is currently awaiting sign off from the Transport Minister on a new part 102 rule that would allow commercial drone operators to apply on a case-by-case basis for the safe operation of beyond line of sight flights rather than the blanket ban on them that currently applies in other countries.

Allowing drones to operate beyond the operator's line of sight could provide economic gains of up to $190 million a year to the farming, forestry and energy sectors, according to a recent report commissioned by Callaghan Innovation.

Graham said UAVs could change the way forests are managed.
"This will let us know more about the trees, whether it is a good tree, one that should be pulped, or one that could be exported. That kind of information at the moment is a bit lacking."

The two days of trials next month will cover between 500 and 1,000 hectares of central North Island forest and have been funded by Scion, but Graham says several forestry companies have indicated they'll also fund trial flights in the new financial year from July.

The flights cover remote stretches of land that aren't economically viable to measure by conventional aircraft and are too hard to access on foot.

Online marketplace Trade Me also said yesterday it was funding trials of delivery drones involving Australian start-up Flirtey and New Zealand Land Search and Rescue (LandSAR).

The first trial was launched last weekend to demonstrate Flirtey's ability to search for a missing person near Lake Roxburgh in the South Island and deliver emergency medical services.

Flirtey, based in Sydney and Nevada, is aiming to be the world's first UAV delivery company and has already conducted over a hundred successful test deliveries of textbooks with its partner Zookal in the US.

It wants to operate in four key industries - humanitarian, courier delivery, fast food, and online retail.

Trade Me said it thinks commercial drone delivery at scale is still some way from being meaningful whereas the chance to make a practical difference in search and rescue works feels like it could be much closer.

Flirtey chief executive Matthew Sweeney said the company had secured countrywide insurance coverage for drone delivery operations here and hopes once its safety record is established and its capabilities mature, to expand operations into populated areas and beyond line of sight.

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Callaghan Innovation aviation manager Chris Thomson said Flirtey is a good example of the growing momentum within the UAV industry on the commercial opportunities available once the new regulatory framework is introduced.

"It had surveyed 85 countries and chose to do the trials here. It thinks it can make more progress in New Zealand," he said.

Being at the forefront of regulatory change in the industry will give New Zealand companies first mover advantage over other competitors.

"They can prove the technology and capability, and build a brand and market reputation before anyone else does," Thomson said.

Businessdesk is funded to write about the commercialisation of innovation by Callaghan Innovation.

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