Farming the planet: Global patterns of agricultural land use and land cover

Background/Question/Methods Agricultural activities have dramatically altered the face of our planet, covering a third of our planet's land surface today. Nonetheless, few descriptions are available of the nature and extent of these changes. We have therefore developed new global data sets of agricultural land cover and land use for ca. 2000. The data sets were developed by merging a rich compilation of national-, state-, and county-level agricultural census data from around the world with global satellite data sets. They describe the spatial distribution of the world's croplands, pastures, harvested area and yield of 175 crops, and N/P/K fertilization application rates, and are presented at 5 min (~10 km) spatial resolution in longitude by longitude. Results/Conclusions According to the data, there were 15.1 million km² of cropland (12% of the Earth's ice-free land surface) and 28.3 million km² of pasture (22%) in the Year 2000. We will present other key maps, results, and analyses of global agricultural land use practices that emerge from these databases, including human appropriation of net primary production by croplands, spatial distribution of food production devoted to food, feed, and other uses, regions of the world devoted to food production for domestic consumption versus export, etc. The types of information presented will be useful for addressing issues ranging from biodiversity conservation to food security to biogeochemical cycling and climate.