About This Page

This webpage is designed to collect dry matter or moisture concentration data by crop type (crops harvested from croplands in different regions and at different times). We will merge the collected data with the existing database “Global Data on Crop Nutrient Concentration and Harvest Indices” and publish it frequently for research use.

We encourage you to contribute to this database by downloading the guidelines and data survey form in the “Download Survey Materials” section below, and by contacting us so we can include your data in our database

Each contributor will be given credit. You can also check and download other contributors’ data and use it for your research needs, as long as you credit both our website and the contributors.

If you are interested in sharing reliable dry matter (or moisture) concentration data of crops with us, need more information regarding the data collection process, or want to report any issues, please feel free to contact Dr. Xin Zhang (xin.zhang@umces.edu) or Dr. Tan Zou (tan.zou@umces.edu).

 

Why is This Important?

Nutrients (mainly nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium) are essential for crops to grow and feed the growing population. However, inefficient use of nutrient input on croplands and nutrient loss from agriculture worldwide are worsening nutrient pollution and hunger problems (Zhang et al. 2015, Zou et al. 2022). To feed billions of people with nutritious food while protecting the environment, nutrients embedded in inputs to cropland, food and feed harvested, food consumed, and waste lost to the environment need to be accurately monitored and quantified.

To quantify the amount of nutrients in harvested crops by crop type in different regions and times, we need to know:

• The weight of harvested crops
• The dry matter or moisture concentration of the crops
• The nutrient concentration in the dry matter of harvested crops by crop type, region, and time

 

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates and updates worldwide crop harvest data (e.g., weights of harvested crops) by crop type, country, and year, (https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QCL). Additionally, crop nutrient concentration data and harvest indices are collected and organized by the database “Global Data on Crop Nutrient Concentration and Harvest Indices” (https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.n2z34tn0x).

However, nutrient studies usually only provide nutrient concentrations of crops without information on the dry matter/moisture concentration. Additionally, countries reporting crop production weights to FAO do not provide the moisture and nutrient concentration of the crops. This can lead to uncertainty when researchers estimate nutrients in harvested crops by multiplying crop weight reported to FAO and nutrient concentration from literature, as the moisture and nutrient concentrations of the crops reported to FAO may differ from those measured in other studies.

To improve the estimation of nutrients in harvested crops, we can enhance the reporting of harvested crops’ dry matter/moisture concentration and nutrient concentration in addition to the current efforts in collecting global nutrient concentration data. We recommend the following actions:

1. Invite experts and labs to provide general ranges of dry matter/moisture concentration for harvested crops by crop type, region, and time, and report sampling and measuring methods if possible.
2. Encourage reporting countries to also report the dry matter/moisture and/or nutrient concentration of dry or harvested crops, if possible.

Besides crop dry matter/moisture concentrations measured in labs, we are also interested in collecting standard dry matter/moisture concentrations by crop type, region, and time as recommended/required by local markets/industries at different stages. If you are submitting such standard data, please indicate this when contacting us and submitting your data.

 

Current Data Sources:

• Gloria Guzmán, Eduardo Aguilera, David Soto, Antonio Cid, Juan Infante, Roberto García Ruiz, Antonio Herrera, Inmaculada Villa, and Manuel González de Molina. (2014). “Methodology and conversion factors to estimate the net primary productivity of historical and contemporary agroecosystems,” Documentos de Trabajo de la Sociedad de Estudios de Historia Agraria 1407, Sociedad de Estudios de Historia Agraria.
• Ludemann, Cameron I., et al. (2023). “Global data on crop nutrient concentration and harvest indices [Dataset],” Dryad, https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.n2z34tn0x.

 

Current Data Countries

Countries highlighted in green have had data reported for them.

Number of countries with data reported:

Download Survey Materials

To ensure accurate and standardized data collection, please download the guidelines and survey form with link below. The provided documents include detailed instructions on how to fill out the survey, as well as additional information about the data. Please contact us for data submission processes.

Download the guidelines and data survey form here.

 

References

Zhang, X., E. A. Davidson, D. L. Mauzerall, T. D. Searchinger, P. Dumas, and Y. Shen. 2015. Managing nitrogen for sustainable development. Nature 528:51-59.10.1038/nature15743

Zou, T., X. Zhang, and E. A. Davidson. 2022. Global trends of cropland phosphorus use and sustainability challenges. Nature 611:81-87.10.1038/s41586-022-05220-z

Acknowledgements

We thank the following researchers for sharing crop dry matter concentration data with us (listed alphabetically):
Dr. Cameron Ludemann, Wageningen University & Research
Dr. Luis Lassaletta, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
We also acknowledge the contributors and developers of each database listed in the section “Current Data Sources”.

In addition, we thank the following people for designing and developing this webpage for NICCEE (listed alphabetically):
Katie Kline
Robert Knotts III