Friday, July 24, 2020

The American Crop Map



Indigo Ag has released an interactive map visualizing the results of a 1,498-county study into how regenerative farming practices are being used in American agriculture. The Indigo Field Level Crop Map reveals the crop health and farming practices on over 300 million acres of American farmland.

The map allows you to explore how regenerative farming practices, such as cover cropping, no-till, and extended crop rotations, are used across the country. Using the map menu you can view how widespread different farming practices are and where they are being used. The data for the map has been gathered through a combination of satellite analysis and ground studies.

Practicing a combination of regenerative farming practices can make agricultural land much more productive and profitable. Cover crops are plants that are planted to just cover the soil and are not intended for harvest. Cover crops can help to mitigate against soil erosion, improve fertility and increase biodiversity. Crop rotation involves growing a succession of different crops on the same area of land. It helps to lower the need for artificial fertilizers and herbicides. No-till farming is growing crops without disturbing the soil through tillage. No-till crops decrease the amount of soil erosion.



If you are interested in what types of crop are grown where in the United States then you can refer to the OneSoil map. OneSoil is an interactive map which provides insights into European and US crop production. The map shows which crops are being grown where, revealing local and global trends in crop production. In total the maps shows what crops have been grown on over 57 million fields in the EU and the US over the last three years.

The OneSoil map was created using AI algorithms to detect the types of crops being grown around the world from satellite imagery. The algorithms are able to recognize 19 different crops with a 92 percent accuracy. OneSoil is also able to analyze from this same imagery the development stage of the crops being grown.

Using the interactive map you can view the top crops being grown in each country or region. Select a country on the map and you can see how many hectares of farmland are given over to each type of crop and the average field size for each type of crop. You can also filter the map by individual crops to show where different crops are being grown in the USA and the EU. Using the date filter you can then view the crop distribution for the last three years. This enables you to see how crop distributions have changed over the last three years, at both the local and global level.

If you are interested in which crops are grown in the USA then you might also like Bloomberg's The Consolidation of the American Harvest which maps where different crops are grown in America. At the global level Esri's The Living Land explores how much land is given over to different crops around the world and RTBMaps shows where different root, tuber and banana crops are grown across the globe.

No comments: