fallo combines authoritative public datasets for climate, soil, agroecological zoning, administrative boundaries, and regional crop calendars. Every source is documented with its spatial resolution, coverage, license, and uncertainty caveats.
Live coordinate extraction from NASA POWER Daily API · Methodological rules from FAO GAEZ v5, UCSB CHIRPS v3, ERA5-Land & WorldClim v2.1
At every field coordinate, fallo queries the NASA POWER Agroclimatology Daily API live to retrieve 20-year daily temperature, precipitation, solar radiation, root-zone soil wetness, and grid-cell elevation (~0.5° MERRA-2/GEOS grid, ~55 km). From that retrieved time series, fallo deterministically computes thermal zones, moisture regimes, estimated Length of Growing Period (LGP), and wet/dry season windows using published FAO GAEZ v5, CHIRPS v3, ERA5-Land, and WorldClim v2.1 agro-climatic threshold methodologies.
Live US polygon survey extraction (USDA SSURGO) · Macro-regional 0–30 cm topsoil reference estimates outside SSURGO coverage (compiled from FAO HWSD v2.2 & ISRIC SoilGrids v2.0)
United States (live coordinate extraction): Inside the US, fallo queries USDA NRCS Soil Data Access (SSURGO) live at the field's coordinates for polygon map-unit components and depth-weighted 0–30 cm topsoil properties (sand, silt, clay, organic matter, pH, available water capacity, drainage, and slope).
Outside USDA SSURGO coverage (macro-regional reference estimates): Because ISRIC's public SoilGrids v2.0 REST API is paused, non-US locations do not perform live coordinate-specific raster or WCS queries. Instead, fallo resolves a representative 0–30 cm topsoil reference profile for the field's agroecological region compiled from published FAO/IIASA HWSD v2.2 and ISRIC SoilGrids v2.0 regional summaries (converting reference SOC % to OM % via the Van Bemmelen factor 1.724 and estimating AWC via Saxton & Rawls 2006 pedotransfer equations).
Agro-ecological thermal/moisture zoning, Length of Growing Period (LGP), and source-backed crop rules
Field classification uses FAO/IIASA GAEZ v5 thermal zones, moisture regimes, and estimated Length of Growing Period (LGP days) across 13 global agroecological classes (including tropical humid, subhumid, savanna, monsoon, semi-arid, arid, subtropical humid, Mediterranean, temperate humid, semi-arid temperate, continental, boreal, and highland/montane). Crop eligibility is grounded in FAO Crop Calendar, FAOSTAT, and regional research institutions (ICRISAT, IITA, CIMMYT, AfricaRice, CAAS China, University of Nevada Cooperative Extension / USDA ARS, EMBRAPA, ICAR, GRDC, ICARDA).
International coordinate normalization, geocoding, and ADM0/ADM1/ADM2 boundary identification
Wrapped world-map longitudes (such as -250° when panning across the Pacific to China) are automatically normalized into [-180°, 180°). Country, ISO code, and sub-national administrative context (including border-corridor notes) are resolved using geoBoundaries v6.0 (CC BY 4.0) and Natural Earth v5.1.2 (Public Domain).
Complete technical registry of datasets integrated into fallo's global agricultural data layer.
How used in fallo: Live REST API (/api/climate with 24h LRU cache)
Coverage: Global (-90° to 90° lat, -180° to 180° lon) · Temporal: Daily (20-year baseline + 3-year recent window)
Uncertainty / Caveats: Regional gridded reanalysis (~55 km); does not capture local microclimates or valley/aspect effects.
How used in fallo: Live Soil Data Access (SDA) Tabular POST API (/api/soil with 24h LRU cache)
Coverage: United States and territories · Temporal: Static survey (updated annually by USDA NRCS)
Uncertainty / Caveats: Map-unit component weighted averages (0–30 cm); properties vary within map units and require on-site soil testing for fertilizer prescriptions.
How used in fallo: Server-side rule-based agro-climatic classifier computing GAEZ v5 thermal zones, moisture regimes, and estimated Length of Growing Period (LGP) from the coordinate's live NASA POWER climate series
Coverage: Global land surface · Temporal: Historical baseline & multi-decade agro-climatic methodology
Uncertainty / Caveats: Derived deterministically from live NASA POWER monthly temperature, precipitation, and elevation records using GAEZ v5 threshold rules (not a direct 5 arc-minute raster lookup).
How used in fallo: Curated agroecological crop calendar catalog in data/crops.json indexed by region, hemisphere, and rainy/dry/irrigated season
Coverage: Global (100+ crops across 50+ countries and agroecological zones) · Temporal: Seasonal planting, vegetative, reproductive, and harvest windows
Uncertainty / Caveats: Planting and harvest windows reflect typical regional onset of rains or thermal thresholds; year-to-year monsoon or frost variability shifts exact field dates.
How used in fallo: Reference national/regional cultivation verification used to curate supportedRegions in data/crops.json
Coverage: Global (245 countries and territories) · Temporal: Annual production series
Uncertainty / Caveats: National production statistics confirm that a crop is commercially cultivated in a country, NOT that it is suitable for a specific field coordinate.
How used in fallo: Curated macro-regional 0–30 cm topsoil reference profiles with indicative regional variability ranges (Q0.05–Q0.95); not a live coordinate-level WCS/WebDAV raster query
Coverage: Global land surface · Temporal: Static digital soil mapping reference baseline (v2.0)
Uncertainty / Caveats: ISRIC's public SoilGrids v2.0 REST API is paused. Outside the US, fallo provides representative regional topsoil estimates rather than coordinate-specific raster extractions or field laboratory measurements.
How used in fallo: Curated regional reference topsoil profiles (0–30 cm representative sand, silt, clay, SOC->OM, pH, bulk density, drainage, and estimated AWC) matched by agroecological region; not a live 1 km raster extraction
Coverage: Global land surface · Temporal: Global soil reference inventory (v2.2)
Uncertainty / Caveats: Values outside USDA SSURGO coverage are representative regional reference estimates, not coordinate-specific raster extractions. Organic carbon (SOC %) is converted to organic matter (OM %) via the Van Bemmelen factor (OM = SOC × 1.724).
How used in fallo: Tropical & semi-arid wet/dry-season month classification applied to the field's monthly precipitation profile for latitudes within 60°S–60°N
Coverage: Quasi-global (60°S to 60°N) · Temporal: Climatological monthly wet/dry season characterization
Uncertainty / Caveats: Applies CHIRPS wet/dry-season threshold rules to the retrieved monthly precipitation profile rather than querying a separate 0.05° raster file.
How used in fallo: Reference evaporative demand (PET) and aridity index formulation applied alongside NASA POWER observations
Coverage: Global land surface · Temporal: Climatological evaporative demand reference
Uncertainty / Caveats: Provides water-balance and aridity reference equations alongside live NASA POWER data rather than asynchronous CDS NetCDF downloads.
How used in fallo: Bioclimatic thermal and seasonal temperature-amplitude thresholds used in agroecological group classification
Coverage: Global land surface · Temporal: Long-term climate classification reference
Uncertainty / Caveats: Used for thermal-amplitude classification rules against NASA POWER 20-year records rather than direct 1 km raster extraction.
How used in fallo: Regional cropland/dryland context reference; does not perform live 10 m satellite tile extraction
Coverage: Global land surface · Temporal: Baseline agro-landscape reference
Uncertainty / Caveats: Provides regional agricultural zone context only; it is NOT a live 10 m pixel lookup or verified farm boundary.
How used in fallo: Highland/montane terrain classifier using elevation reported by NASA POWER at the field coordinates
Coverage: Global land surface · Temporal: Static elevation baseline
Uncertainty / Caveats: Uses grid-cell elevation from the live NASA POWER response to identify highland/montane thermal zones (>=1,500 m at low latitudes).
How used in fallo: Deterministic administrative & agro-region resolver in lib/region.ts with explicit border-zone handling
Coverage: Global (all countries and ADM1/ADM2 divisions) · Temporal: v6.0 / v5.1.2
Uncertainty / Caveats: Border corridors and disputed territories are explicitly flagged without inventing sovereign certainty.
How used in fallo: Cited agronomic trait, rotation interval, and disease-host rules from ICRISAT, IITA, CIMMYT, AfricaRice, CAAS, University of Nevada Extension, USDA, EMBRAPA, ICAR, GRDC, and ICARDA
Coverage: Multi-regional (Africa, Asia, Americas, Europe, MENA, Oceania) · Temporal: Published agronomic trials, crop calendars, and disease guides
Uncertainty / Caveats: Extension guidelines describe regional best practices; variety resistance and field-specific pathogen history always require local verification.
fallo presents all data-source limitations clearly. We do not claim field-level precision where the underlying data are regional or globally modeled. All rotation scores are labeled as decision-support heuristics, and locations with insufficient evidence (Level 3) refuse rotation generation rather than fabricating unsupported plans.