Hydrionis Data

Crop Production and Irrigated Area Dataset

National annual production, harvested area and yield for six water-relevant crops — wheat, maize, rice, sugar cane, seed cotton and sorghum — from 1961, with the area equipped for irrigation and the area actually irrigated. The crops were chosen to carry a water story: three staples whose failure is a food-security event, the two that define irrigation demand where they are grown, and the drought-tolerant one whose area rises when the others fail.

v1.0.0123,721 observations1961–2024

123,721

Observations

2,503

Series

190

Subjects

1961–2024

Period covered

What this looks like

One real series from the dataset, and real rows from the head of its published extract. Neither is a mock-up: the rows below are the same rows, unchanged, that are in the file you would download.

Wheat production at Afghanistan

The longest single series this dataset holds — 64 annual values, one of 2,503. The dataset is not this chart.

Drawn to show the shape and resolution of what the dataset contains, not to make a point about Afghanistan. Gaps are breaks, never interpolated.

View the data behind this chart

Underlying data
Period	Afghanistan (t)
1961	2,279,000
1962	2,279,000
1963	1,947,000
1964	2,230,000
1965	2,282,000
1966	2,033,000
1967	2,280,000
1968	2,354,000
1969	2,454,000
1970	2,081,000
1971	1,915,000
1972	2,450,000
1973	2,700,000
1974	2,750,000
1975	2,850,000
1976	2,936,000
1977	2,652,000
1978	2,813,000
1979	2,663,000
1980	2,550,000
1981	2,470,000
1982	2,391,000
1983	2,306,000
1984	2,194,000
1985	2,081,000
1986	1,925,000
1987	2,300,000
1988	1,900,000
1989	1,800,000
1990	1,650,000
1991	1,726,000
1992	1,650,000
1993	1,940,000
1994	2,050,000
1995	2,100,000
1996	2,300,000
1997	2,711,000
1998	2,834,000
1999	2,499,000
2000	1,469,000
2001	1,597,000
2002	2,686,000
2003	3,480,000
2004	2,390,000
2005	4,266,000
2006	3,363,000
2007	4,484,000
2008	2,623,000
2009	5,064,000
2010	4,532,000
2011	3,388,000
2012	5,050,000
2013	5,169,235
2014	5,370,259
2015	4,673,040
2016	4,555,110
2017	4,280,776
2018	3,613,300
2019	4,890,000
2020	5,185,000
2021	4,017,657
2022	3,802,895
2023	4,350,662
2024	5,200,000

Sample rows

12 of 144,556 rows Taken from the start of observations-agriculture-fao-faostat.csv. These are sample rows, not the dataset.

Sample rows from the Crop Production and Irrigated Area Dataset extract
`metric_id`	`subject_id`	`subject_kind`	`value`	`censored`	`censor_operator`	`censor_threshold`	`censor_limit`	`censor_reported`	`unit`	`period_start`	`period_end`	`period_kind`	`basis`	`confidence`	`source_id`	`source_ref`	`qualifier`	`superseded`	`retrieved`
arable-land-area	country-afg	geography	7800000	—	—	—	—	—	ha	1964-01-01	1964-12-31	year	reported	high	fao-faostat	Inputs_LandUse_E_All_Data_(Normalized).csv	—	—	2026-08-27
arable-land-area	country-afg	geography	7800000	—	—	—	—	—	ha	1965-01-01	1965-12-31	year	reported	high	fao-faostat	Inputs_LandUse_E_All_Data_(Normalized).csv	—	—	2026-08-27
arable-land-area	country-afg	geography	7835000	—	—	—	—	—	ha	1966-01-01	1966-12-31	year	reported	high	fao-faostat	Inputs_LandUse_E_All_Data_(Normalized).csv	—	—	2026-08-27
arable-land-area	country-afg	geography	7844000	—	—	—	—	—	ha	1967-01-01	1967-12-31	year	reported	high	fao-faostat	Inputs_LandUse_E_All_Data_(Normalized).csv	—	—	2026-08-27
arable-land-area	country-afg	geography	7844000	—	—	—	—	—	ha	1968-01-01	1968-12-31	year	reported	high	fao-faostat	Inputs_LandUse_E_All_Data_(Normalized).csv	—	—	2026-08-27
arable-land-area	country-afg	geography	7910000	—	—	—	—	—	ha	1976-01-01	1976-12-31	year	reported	high	fao-faostat	Inputs_LandUse_E_All_Data_(Normalized).csv	—	—	2026-08-27
arable-land-area	country-afg	geography	7910000	—	—	—	—	—	ha	1977-01-01	1977-12-31	year	reported	high	fao-faostat	Inputs_LandUse_E_All_Data_(Normalized).csv	—	—	2026-08-27
arable-land-area	country-afg	geography	7910000	—	—	—	—	—	ha	1978-01-01	1978-12-31	year	reported	high	fao-faostat	Inputs_LandUse_E_All_Data_(Normalized).csv	—	—	2026-08-27
arable-land-area	country-afg	geography	7910000	—	—	—	—	—	ha	1979-01-01	1979-12-31	year	reported	high	fao-faostat	Inputs_LandUse_E_All_Data_(Normalized).csv	—	—	2026-08-27
arable-land-area	country-afg	geography	7910000	—	—	—	—	—	ha	1980-01-01	1980-12-31	year	reported	high	fao-faostat	Inputs_LandUse_E_All_Data_(Normalized).csv	—	—	2026-08-27
arable-land-area	country-afg	geography	7910000	—	—	—	—	—	ha	1981-01-01	1981-12-31	year	reported	high	fao-faostat	Inputs_LandUse_E_All_Data_(Normalized).csv	—	—	2026-08-27
arable-land-area	country-afg	geography	7910000	—	—	—	—	—	ha	1982-01-01	1982-12-31	year	reported	high	fao-faostat	Inputs_LandUse_E_All_Data_(Normalized).csv	—	—	2026-08-27

Download these rows as CSV — the same twelve, with the column header, for testing a loader before committing to the full file.

Methodology

Collected from two FAOSTAT bulk domains. Every FAOSTAT value carries a flag saying where it came from, and Hydrionis reads it rather than treating the file as uniform: official figures and figures from external organisations are stored as reported, FAO’s own estimates as estimated, and values imputed by a receiving agency are not stored at all — collecting an upstream backfill is backfilling. A series takes the weakest basis it contains. FAO’s own regional and world aggregates, published in the same files, are not adopted under Hydrionis region names. Countries resolve through the UN M49-to-ISO3 crosswalk rather than by name, and the forty-five FAOSTAT areas that do not resolve — dissolved states and territories Hydrionis does not hold — are reported rather than dropped quietly.

What this dataset cannot tell you

Read before relying on these figures

National figures throughout. They say nothing about any farm, field or irrigation scheme, and a national average conceals the irrigated and rain-fed halves of a country that has both.
Harvested area excludes what was sown and lost before harvest, so a severe drought can shrink the area statistic rather than the yield statistic — the worst years are described least well.
Land equipped for irrigation is capacity, not use, and is often carried forward unchanged between reporting years: a flat series may mean "not resurveyed". Land actually irrigated is reported by very few countries and not on a common definition.
Neither irrigation measure is a volume of water. Hydrionis holds no FAO figure for agricultural water withdrawal in this dataset.
An extreme yield on a very small harvested area is usually a crop cut green and weighed fresh rather than a grain harvest, which the FAOSTAT item does not distinguish.
FAO revises history. The whole series is republished each release, so figures cited previously may change.

Coverage

Subjects	Countries, as held by Hydrionis; FAO aggregates and unresolvable areas excluded — 190 held
Period	1961–2024
Units	ha, kg/ha, t
Update cadence	Annually
Identifier	`crop-production-and-irrigation` v1.0.0

Fields

Data dictionary →

Every metric this dataset carries, with the unit it is stored in and the geography level it is reported at. Full definitions are in the data dictionary.

Identifier	Field	Unit	Reported at
`crop-production-wheat`	Wheat production Quantity of wheat harvested in a country in a calendar or crop year.	t	country
`crop-area-harvested-wheat`	Wheat harvested area Area from which wheat was actually harvested in a country in a year.	ha	country
`crop-yield-wheat`	Wheat yield Harvested quantity of wheat per hectare of harvested area.	kg/ha	country
`crop-production-maize`	Maize production Quantity of maize harvested in a country in a calendar or crop year.	t	country
`crop-area-harvested-maize`	Maize harvested area Area from which maize was actually harvested in a country in a year.	ha	country
`crop-yield-maize`	Maize yield Harvested quantity of maize per hectare of harvested area.	kg/ha	country
`crop-production-rice`	Rice production Quantity of rice harvested in a country in a calendar or crop year.	t	country
`crop-area-harvested-rice`	Rice harvested area Area from which rice was actually harvested in a country in a year.	ha	country
`crop-yield-rice`	Rice yield Harvested quantity of rice per hectare of harvested area.	kg/ha	country
`crop-production-sugar-cane`	Sugar cane production Quantity of sugar cane harvested in a country in a calendar or crop year.	t	country
`crop-area-harvested-sugar-cane`	Sugar cane harvested area Area from which sugar cane was actually harvested in a country in a year.	ha	country
`crop-yield-sugar-cane`	Sugar cane yield Harvested quantity of sugar cane per hectare of harvested area.	kg/ha	country
`crop-production-seed-cotton`	Seed cotton production Quantity of seed cotton harvested in a country in a calendar or crop year.	t	country
`crop-area-harvested-seed-cotton`	Seed cotton harvested area Area from which seed cotton was actually harvested in a country in a year.	ha	country
`crop-yield-seed-cotton`	Seed cotton yield Harvested quantity of seed cotton per hectare of harvested area.	kg/ha	country
`crop-production-sorghum`	Sorghum production Quantity of sorghum harvested in a country in a calendar or crop year.	t	country
`crop-area-harvested-sorghum`	Sorghum harvested area Area from which sorghum was actually harvested in a country in a year.	ha	country
`crop-yield-sorghum`	Sorghum yield Harvested quantity of sorghum per hectare of harvested area.	kg/ha	country
`land-equipped-for-irrigation`	Land equipped for irrigation Area furnished with infrastructure to supply water to crops, whether or not it was irrigated in a given year.	ha	country
`land-actually-irrigated`	Land actually irrigated Area to which water was actually applied in a given year.	ha	country

Rights and access

Licence position

Restricted — see below. Derivative use true; redistribution true; commercial reuse unclear.

FAO adds terms beyond CC BY 4.0. Datasets may not be used for or in conjunction with the promotion of a commercial enterprise or its products or services, nor in any way suggesting FAO endorsement; commercial reuse is therefore recorded as unclear and withheld. FAO also warns that its databases may contain third-party data that may not be redistributable, with any such condition stated in the dataset metadata — the crop production and land use datasets Hydrionis holds carry no such note. Attribution must follow FAO’s prescribed citation format.

Permitted uses

Public display
Derived analysis
API delivery
Bulk download

Available to: Public, Developer, Research. These follow from the rights of the contributing publishers, not from a Hydrionis pricing decision — no access tier can widen what a publisher withheld.

Contributing sources

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations — FAOSTAT — Production and Land Use domains (CC BY 4.0, as complemented by the FAO Statistical Database Terms of Use)

Attribution and citation

Cite and reuse →

Two different obligations, deliberately kept apart. One is a condition of somebody else's licence; the other is a request Hydrionis has no standing to enforce.

Attribution you are required to give

These are conditions of the licences the underlying data is published under. They are obligations to the publishers, not to Hydrionis, and they apply to you directly whether or not you mention Hydrionis at all.

Data from Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, used under CC BY 4.0, as complemented by the FAO Statistical Database Terms of Use.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations — CC BY 4.0, as complemented by the FAO Statistical Database Terms of Use (licence text)

Suggested citation for Hydrionis

Hydrionis (2026), Crop Production and Irrigated Area Dataset, version 1.0.0, accessed 2026-09-02, hydrionis.com/data/datasets/crop-production-and-irrigation/

Cite Hydrionis where you rely on the compilation, the normalisation, the eligibility judgements or a chart. Where you use an unmodified published value, the publisher’s attribution is the one that is required; crediting Hydrionis as well is welcome and is not something Hydrionis can require of you.

Recommended, not required. Hydrionis does not claim rights over unmodified public data it relayed, and doing arithmetic on somebody else’s measurements does not make them Hydrionis’s. Cite the version and the access date: Crop Production and Irrigated Area Dataset changes as publishers release and as methods are revised, and a citation without both cannot be checked later. Full guidance is on cite and reuse.

Changelog

Version 1.0.0 — 2026-08-27

First release.

Additions

Production, harvested area and yield for six crops, and two irrigated-area measures, for 195 countries from 1961.

Use this data

Download agriculture observations from FAO (144,556 rows) (CSV)
Machine-readable JSON /api/v1/datasets/crop-production-and-irrigation.json
How to cite this, and who you must credit
How these figures were produced
Request this at a different scale, format or geography

Every bulk extract ships with a companion metadata file carrying this dataset’s version, its sources, their licences, the attribution you are required to give and the suggested citation — so the terms travel with the file rather than staying on this page.

About this data

The fields a professional user needs to judge whether this is fit for a particular purpose. Deliberately not a score.

About this data

Everything below is a property of the data rather than a rating of it. There is deliberately no single confidence score: how much a gap matters depends on what you are about to do with the series, and only you know that.

Source	Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations — FAOSTAT — Production and Land Use domains · CC BY 4.0, as complemented by the FAO Statistical Database Terms of Use
How the values came to exist	Mixed across the series — the basis is recorded on every individual value.
Period held	1961–2024
Known gaps	National figures throughout. They say nothing about any farm, field or irrigation scheme, and a national average conceals the irrigated and rain-fed halves of a country that has both. Harvested area excludes what was sown and lost before harvest, so a severe drought can shrink the area statistic rather than the yield statistic — the worst years are described least well. Land equipped for irrigation is capacity, not use, and is often carried forward unchanged between reporting years: a flat series may mean "not resurveyed". Land actually irrigated is reported by very few countries and not on a common definition.
Continuity	Version 1.0.0, released 2026-08-27. 1 recorded version; breaking changes and corrections are listed in the changelog above.
Last read from the publisher	2026-08-27 · publisher updates annually
Redistribution	Permitted by the upstream licences
Commercial reuse	Not established by the upstream licences. No Hydrionis access tier can widen this.
Methodology	How this was produced