HarvestStat Africa – Harmonized subnational crop statistics for sub-Saharan Africa

Donghoon Lee; Weston Anderson; Xuan Chen; Frank Davenport; Shraddhanand Shukla; Ritvik Sahajpal; Michael Budde; James Rowland; James Verdin; Liangzhi You; Matthieu Ahouangbenon; Kyle Frankel Davis; Endalkachew Kebede; Steffen Ehrmann; Christina Justice; Carsten Meyer

doi:10.1038/s41597-025-05001-z

HarvestStat Africa – Harmonized subnational crop statistics for sub-Saharan Africa

Scientific Data - Nature

By: Donghoon Lee, Weston Anderson, Xuan Chen, Frank Davenport, Shraddhanand Shukla, Ritvik Sahajpal, Michael Budde, James Rowland, James Verdin, Liangzhi You, Matthieu Ahouangbenon, Kyle Frankel Davis, Endalkachew Kebede, Steffen Ehrmann, Christina Justice, and Carsten Meyer

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-025-05001-z

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Abstract

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) faces severe agricultural data scarcity amidst high food insecurity and a large agricultural yield gap, making crop production data crucial for understanding and enhancing food systems. To address this gap, HarvestStat Africa presents the largest compilation of open-access subnational crop statistics and time-series across SSA. Based on agricultural statistics collated by USAID’s Famine Early Warning Systems Network, the subnational crop statistics are standardized and calibrated across changing administrative units to produce consistent and continuous time-series. The dataset includes 546,605 records, primarily spanning from 1980 to 2022, detailing crop production, harvested areas, and yields for 33 countries and 90 crop types, including key cereals in SSA such as wheat, maize, rice, sorghum, barley, millet, and fonio. This new dataset enhances our understanding of how climate variability and change influence agricultural production, supports subnational food system analysis, and aids in operational yield forecasting. As an open-source resource, it sets an important precedent for sharing subnational crop statistics to inform decision-making and modeling efforts.

Suggested Citation

Lee, D., Anderson, W., Chen, X., Davenport, F., Shukla, S., Sahajpal, R., Budde, M., Rowland, J., Verdin, J., You, L., Ahouangbenon, M., Frankel Davis, K., Kebede, E., Ehrmann, S., Justice, C., and Meyer, C., 2025, HarvestStat Africa – Harmonized subnational crop statistics for sub-Saharan Africa: Scientific Data - Nature, v. 12, 690, 13 p., https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-025-05001-z.

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Additional publication details
Publication type	Article
Publication Subtype	Journal Article
Title	HarvestStat Africa – Harmonized subnational crop statistics for sub-Saharan Africa
Series title	Scientific Data - Nature
DOI	10.1038/s41597-025-05001-z
Volume	12
Publication Date	April 24, 2025
Year Published	2025
Language	English
Publisher	Springer Nature
Contributing office(s)	Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center
Description	690, 13 p.
Other Geospatial	sub-Saharan Africa