Title: Global crop datasets for investigations into world food security
Abstract: The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) tracks the yield (productivity), harvested area, and production of ~170 individual crops in each country of the world. While this data provides a good idea of agricultural conditions in small countries such as Surinam, in large countries such as the United States and China, national level information is not as helpful in understanding sub-national conditions required to make targeted decisions. The Global Landscapes Initiative team at the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment constructs high-resolution crop data time-series globally to answer varied questions related to world food security that could be used for targeted policy making. Using statistical approaches, the trends in crop yields that are influenced by a variety of factors such as climate change are some of the accomplished and on-going research. I will present some of these results and discuss other potential research ideas and methods with the audience.
Biography
Deepak Ray is a Senior Scientist with IonE’s Global Landscapes Initiative. He constructs high-resolution crop data to answer varied questions on world food security such as the current status of the Green Revolution and how climate change impacts the productivity of important global crops. His work has appeared in leading scientific journals such as Nature and Nature Communications.
