The Global Subnational Agricultural Production (GSAP) database

The Global Subnational Agricultural Production (GSAP) database, developed by the Stockholm Environment Institute, is the first standardized global database providing subnational agricultural production data for key crops. It aims to fill a critical information gap by collecting high-resolution data from national statistical offices to improve food security, climate adaptation, and agricultural research.

• The GSAP database is the first standardized global subnational agricultural production database that is comprehensive in country coverage and updated for the period 2010–21. It collects data at the highest available resolution—such as districts, provinces, and regions—for the 50 most relevant global crops, including major grains like wheat, maize, rice, and soybean, as well as local security crops like cassava, yams, coffee, and cocoa.
• GSAP addresses a significant information gap where existing global data, such as FAOSTAT, only provides national-level resolution, and other crop maps are either outdated or based on suitability models. This gap leads to uncertainty in prioritizing agricultural R&D investments, forecasting local food production variability due to climate change, and predicting regional geopolitical or humanitarian scenarios.
• The GSAP methodology involves obtaining official data from national statistical offices and ministries of agriculture, using AI-related optical character recognition and pattern matching for cleaning, and harmonizing data using the Database of Global Administrative Area for jurisdictions and the FAO crop coding system. All values are converted to hectares and metric tons.
• Initial data collection covered 185 countries and over 30,000 subnational jurisdictions. Processed data for approximately 15,000 subnational jurisdictions currently accounts for 92% of global soybean production, 85% of global maize and sugarcane production, and 75% of global wheat and rice production.
• Future goals for the GSAP project include creating a public online platform, expanding coverage to 100% of production for crops of interest, establishing a Global Agriculture Lab for research, and incorporating additional data types such as livestock, forestry, and agricultural management practices like irrigation and crop calendars.

APA

Flach, R. (2024). The Global Subnational Agricultural Production (GSAP) database. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/the-global-subnational-agricultural-production-gsap-database.pdf

Chicago

Flach, Rafaela. The Global Subnational Agricultural Production (GSAP) database. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2024. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/the-global-subnational-agricultural-production-gsap-database.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Flach |first1=Rafaela |title=The Global Subnational Agricultural Production (GSAP) database |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=April 2024 |url=https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/the-global-subnational-agricultural-production-gsap-database.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{flach2024global, author = {Flach, Rafaela}, title = {{The Global Subnational Agricultural Production (GSAP) database}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2024}, month = apr, url = {https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/the-global-subnational-agricultural-production-gsap-database.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }