Meaning
Crop statistics describe the modeled spatial distribution of agricultural production for a declared reference year. IFPRI SPAM 2020 v2r2 is a global 5-arc-minute grid for 46 crops and crop groups. Its reference year remains 2020 even though the dataset release was revised in 2026.
One Provider exposes an independent scalar Channel for each crop and indicator, and bundled component Channels for all crops of a measure. The integration uses the combined irrigated and rainfed system, with four indicators: physical growing area in hectares, harvested area in hectares, production in metric tonnes, and yield in kilograms per harvested hectare. Harvested area can exceed physical area because of multiple crop harvests.
Scalar numerical display
Area and production values retain their original source-cell meaning. Lower zoom pixels average valid source-cell values; they do not represent totals within the larger display pixel. Yield uses harvested-area weights before encoding, so small growing areas do not receive the same weight as large ones. Zero crop values and source NoData are transparent in the display.
The Channel owns the numerical range, unit, quantity and RG16 encoding. Colors, logarithmic scale, opacity and Original palette belong to the Layer through the numeric raster contract. A crop Map groups four independently styled Layers in an exclusive Map Connection.
All-crop composition
Bundled Channels use the component grid contract and preserve all 46 values per cell. One Layer explicitly binds its four measure Channels and offers measure, All/one crop, and mosaic/stripes/dominant choices. Category colors are stored in the Layer by stable crop ID.
The original resolution is 5′, with physical cell size varying by latitude. Coarse component cells sum known area and production observations; yield uses valid positive harvested-area weights. These aggregates differ deliberately from scalar mean-value display pixels. Known zero and NoData remain separate. The inspector reports actual component values and missingness and never offers a sum of crop yields.
Interpretation and provenance
These are modeled reference statistics, rather than field boundaries or a live crop monitoring feed. Regional totals require aggregation of the original source cells, not summation of rendered pixels. The DOI, exact Dataverse version, source checksums, IFPRI attribution and the source terms must remain attached. The source Dataverse terms and external mirror license labels differ; the Provider records that qualification rather than marking an ambiguous license as unconditionally verified.