more information about NetCDF

Hard copy reprints of published papers are available, please email Carmela Diosana with your request

18 Major Crops Dataset

This dataset is described in Leff, B., Ramankutty, N., and Foley, J.A. (2004). Geographic distribution of major crops across the world Global Biogeochemical Cycles, Vol. 18, No. 1, GB1009 10.1029/2003GB002108, 16 January 2004

The data is available in two formats -- NetCDF and ArcINFO ASCII -- at two resolutions, 0.5 degree and 5 minute, and is representative of the early 1990s.

If you download this dataset, please email Navin Ramankutty. We are very interested to know how our data is being used. We can also keep you informed of any updates to the dataset.

PLEASE NOTE: this global dataset is intended only for continental to global scale applications. The data set was developed using data on proportion of harvested area within each grid cell, and therefore represents, for each grid cell, the probability of finding a given crop in that location during the year. Thus, if a crop is multiple cropped during the year, it has a higher probability of being in a grid cell than those crops that are single cropped, even if they occupy the same "physical" area. Furthermore, the sum of the 18 major crops and the other crops will yield the original Ramankutty and Foley (1998) data set. This implies simplisitic assumptions such as the ignoring of temporary fallow land (also considered cropland), croplands temporarily used as pastures, etc. In summary, this is a global data set intended to provide very rough indications of the probability of finding major crops in different locations across the world in the early 1990s period. It was developed to be used for global modeling applications, and should be used with caution.