Having the latest up-to-date information on the location and scale of global agriculture is critical for not only food security planning but future capital allocation as well. Two new maps released in the journal Global Change Biology, combine information sourced from multiple data sources that has been reconciled using crowd-sourced accuracy giving an improved record of the total scale of global agriculture as well as field size. The maps were developed in partnership by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) using data collected from various global institutes and organizations which was then validated by volunteers using high resolution data to verify the resulting large-scale maps. The method has resulted in a more accurate, better integrated information source than any other maps currently available.
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