A 30m resolution annual cropland extent dataset of Africa in recent decades of the 21st century (2025)

Abstract. Accurate cropland mapping is essential for understanding agricultural dynamics in Africa, a critical global issue with significant implications for the Sustainable Development Goals (e.g., Zero Hunger). Large-scale cropland mapping encounters several challenges, including the varying landscape characteristics of cropland across different regions, extended cultivation periods, and the limited availability of reference data. The study developed a 30-meter resolution African annual cropland distribution (namely AFCD) dataset for Africa spanning the years 2000 to 2022. To extract this large-scale cropland distribution data, we employed random forest classification and Continuous Change Detection algorithms on the Google Earth Engine platform. Robust training samples were generated, and a locally adaptive model was applied for cropland extraction. The final output consists of annual binary Crop/Non-Crop maps from 2000 to 2022. Independent validation samples from numerous third-party sources confirm that the map’s accuracy is 0.86±0.01. A comparison of the cropland area estimates from AFCD with those of the FAO for Africa yielded an R-squared value of 0.86. According to our estimates, Africa’s cropland expanded from 194.35 Mha in 2000 to 210.92 Mha by 2022, marking a net increase of 8.53 %. Prior to 2005, changes in Africa’s cropland area were gradual, but after 2006, there was a marked acceleration in cropland expansion. Despite this continued growth, Africa also experienced significant cropland abandonment. By 2018, abandoned cropland accounted for 11.52 % of the total active cropland area. AFCD also avoided the misclassification of buildings, roads, and trees surrounding cropland, a common issue in LGRIP products. The study further highlights the unique advantage of AFCD in providing a dynamic annual cropland dataset at 30-meter resolution for Africa. This dataset is a crucial resource for understanding the spatial-temporal dynamics of cropland and can support policies on food security and sustainable land management. The cropland dataset is available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14920706 (Lou et al., 2025).

How to cite. Lou, Z., Peng, D., Shi, Z., Wang, H., Zhang, Y., Yan, X., Chen, Z., Ye, S., Yu, L., Hu, J., Lv, Y., Peng, H., Zhang, Y., and Zhang, B.: A 30m resolution annual cropland extent dataset of Africa in recent decades of the 21st century, Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss. [preprint], https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2025-133, in review, 2025.

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Latest update: 22 May 2025