Spatially-Disaggregated Crop Production Estimates for Sub-Saharan Africa, 2017

IFPRI's Spatial Production Allocation Model (SPAM) provides grid-cell level estimates of crop distribution for Africa South of the Sahara for the year 2017. The model uses a cross-entropy approach to disaggregate production statistics from administrative units to a finer spatial resolution. This data reveals spatial patterns of crop performance at the confluence of geography and agricultural production systems.

Use Cases

• Targeting agricultural development policies based on spatially-disaggregated crop performance patterns.
• Analyzing the geography of agricultural production systems at a sub-national scale.
• Modeling food security and environmental impact scenarios using grid-level crop distribution data.

Strengths

• Data is produced by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), a leading agricultural research organization.
• Model uses a cross-entropy approach to create plausible, spatially-disaggregated estimates.
• Covers the specific geographic region of Africa South of the Sahara for a single year (2017).

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and file size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

Collection Method

Generated using IFPRI's Spatial Production Allocation Model (SPAM/MapSPAM), a cross-entropy model that disaggregates coarser production statistics.

Time Range

2017

Freshness

Data is for the year 2017; update frequency is unknown.

Geography

Africa South of the Sahara