Methods, results and policy implications of poverty and food security mapping assessments

The importance of poverty reduction to the world development agenda has motivated greater interest in the geographic dimensions of poverty and food security. This special issue of Food Policy includes examples of poverty and food security mapping used to support policy development in agricultural and rural areas. The volume includes eight country case studies and one cross-country comparison that illustrate advances in our capacity to assess welfare over large areas and at detailed spatial resolutions. Poverty mapping facilitates assessments of the role of environmental factors on the broad spatial pattern of poverty and food security. Evaluating proximity and accessibility in welfare outcomes can improve our knowledge of poverty patterns and processes. Spatial statistics can enhance our understanding of geographic and neighbourhood effects on poverty and food security outcomes. The development of effective policies requires increased collaboration among stakeholders, researchers and policy makers in constructing and using poverty and food security maps

Identifying areas for field conservation of forages in Latin American disturbed environments

This paper uses the spatial analysis tools DIVA and FloraMap to identify potential areas for the in situ conservation of a set of 10 forage species. We introduce the idea of roadside verges as conservation areas and discuss the risks and opportunities of two potential scenarios for conservation. These are the introduction of mass reservoirs outside of the original areas of collection and conservation inside the area of origin. Four potential areas for in situ conservation in Latin America are identified. Although more detailed studies using remote sensing, soil information, and field reconnaissance will be necessary for a final assessment of the suggested areas as field conservation sites, we discuss the possibilities of establishing low-maintenance communities and the potential dangers of introducing harmful weed species. We do not have final answers with regard to the permanent maintenance of genetic diversity in these areas but suggest that further studies of genetic drift in the populations would not only be scientifically useful but might also lead to identifying useful genotypes for local use

Exploring the spatial variation of food poverty in Ecuador

We examine the geographic dimensions of food consumption in Ecuador, which has one of the highest rates of chronic infant undernutrition in Latin America. We use statistical and spatial analyses to examine the distribution of food consumption and food poverty and to test and generate hypotheses of food poverty estimates at the district level. Results show that the food poor are concentrated in certain locations with a significant cluster identified in the central Andean region. Geographically weighted regression shows that the processes underlying food poverty in Ecuador are also spatially variable. While our results lend support for nationwide land tenure reforms, in the central Andes these must take into account productivity constraints and communal ownership. Improvements in transport infrastructure will likely decrease levels of food poverty country-wide but could be most beneficial in the extreme south and in the province of Esmeraldas. Investment in rural enterprise development should be encouraged in all regions

Spatial and temporal contrasts in the distribution of crops and pastures across Amazonia: A new agricultural land use data set from census data since 1950: Crops and pastures across Amazonia

Amazonia holds the largest continuous area of tropical forests with intense land use change dynamics inducing water, carbon, and energy feedbacks with regional and global impacts. Much of our knowledge of land use change in Amazonia comes from studies of the Brazilian Amazon, which accounts for two thirds of the region. Amazonia outside of Brazil has received less attention because of the difficulty of acquiring consistent data across countries. We present here an agricultural statistics database of the entire Amazonia region, with a harmonized description of crops and pastures in geospatial format, based on administrative boundary data at the municipality level. The spatial coverage includes countries within Amazonia and spans censuses and surveys from 1950 to 2012. Harmonized crop and pasture types are explored by grouping annual and perennial cropping systems, C3 and C4 photosynthetic pathways, planted and natural pastures, and main crops. Our analysis examined the spatial pattern of ratios between classes of the groups and their correlation with the agricultural extent of crops and pastures within administrative units of the Amazon, by country, and census/survey dates. Significant correlations were found between all ratios and the fraction of agricultural lands of each administrative unit, with the exception of planted to natural pastures ratio and pasture lands extent. Brazil and Peru in most cases have significant correlations for all ratios analyzed even for specific census and survey dates. Results suggested improvements, and potential applications of the database for carbon, water, climate, and land use change studies are discussed. The database presented here provides an Amazon-wide improved data set on agricultural dynamics with expanded temporal and spatial coverage (2020-11