IFPRI senior researcher Stanley Wood will speak at a prominent gathering of geospatial experts—those who gather, analyze and synthesize map-based data—on May 23. The goal of the two-day GEOSHARE (Geospatial Open-Source Hosting of Agricultural & Environmental data) workshop is to develop a geospatial database that researchers can use to more accurately analyze agriculture, forestry, and the environment. Supported by the UK Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, the draft proposal for this database is available here.

Wood’s presentation will take place at May 23 at 11 a.m. EST. All speeches and panel discussions will be webcast live from Purdue University that day. See the itinerary and a list of participants, below.

Wood heads IFPRI’s HarvestChoice program, which generates knowledge products to help guide strategic investments to improve the well-being of poor people in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia through more productive and profitable farming. He also leads the CGIAR’s Consortium for Spatial Information (CGIAR CSI), which brings together geospatial researchers from IFPRI’s 15 sister centers.

Schedule: May 23 – Webcast Live

8:00 -9:00 a.m.
Welcome and Introductions (Angela Phillips Diaz and Thomas Hertel)
Motivation and Overview of the Initiative (Thomas Hertel and Nelson Villoria)

9:00 – 10:00 a.m.
Global Land Cover: Current State of Knowledge and Research Frontiers (Navin Ramankutty)
A Global Perspective on Agricultural Irrigation (Stefan Siebert)

11:00 – 12:30 p.m.
Spatially Explicit Analysis of Agriculture, Poverty and Economic Development in Sub-Saharan Africa (Stanley Wood)
Agriculture and Land Use Change and Poverty in Latin America (Glenn Hyman)
Spatially Explicit Analysis of Agriculture and Poverty in Asia (Andrew Nelson)

1:30 – 3:00 p.m.
The Role of Spatial Data in EU Agricultural Policy Analysis (Wolfgang Britz)
Panel discussion: The Value of Spatial Data for Agriculture, Climate and Environmental Policy, Chaired by Yvan Biot. Panelists: Klaus Deininger, Florent Gasc, and Michael Obersteiner

3:45 – 4:45 p.m.
Panel discussion: Institutional design and sustainability of the Project, Chaired by William Martin, Panelists: Neilson Conklin; Sarahelen Thompson; John Latham

4:45 – 5:30 p.m.
Climate Data for Agricultural Analysis: Opportunities and Pitfalls (Noah Diffenbaugh)
Forestry, Land Use and Climate Change (Brent Sohngen)
Soils and the global carbon cycle (Robert Jackson)

Speakers and Panelists
Yvan Biot, Senior Policy Advisor for Climate Change, UK Department for International Development

Wolfgang Britz, Senior Lecturer, Dept. of Food and Resource Economics, Bonn University

Neilson Conklin, President, Farm Foundation

Klaus Deininger, Lead Economist, Agriculture and Rural Development, World Bank

Noah Diffenbaugh, Woods Institute Center Fellow and Assistant
Professor, Environmental Earth System Science, Stanford University

Florent Gasc, GIS Officer, African Climate Policy Center

Thomas Hertel, Distinguished Professor of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University

Glenn Hyman, Senior Researcher, International Center for Tropical Agriculture

Robert Jackson, Professor, Department of Biology, Duke University

John Latham, Senior Geospatial Officer for Land and Water, Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations

William Martin, Research Manager, Agriculture and Rural Development, World Bank

Andrew Nelson, Scientist, International Rice Research Institute, Manila, Philippines.

Michael Obersteiner, Senior Scientist, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis

Navin Ramankutty, Assistant Professor, Dept of Geography, McGill University

Stefan Siebert, Senior Scientist, Institute of Crop Science, Bonn University

Brent Sohngen, Professor, Dept of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics, The Ohio State University

Sarahelen Thompson, Director of the Market and Trade Economics Division, Economic Research Service, USDA

Nelson Villoria, Assistant Professor, Dept of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University

Stanley Wood, Senior Research Fellow, International Food Policy Research Institute