electricsheepafrica/africa-synth-agriculture-soil-moisture-monitoring-nigeria

⚠️ Synthetic dataset — Parameterized from published SSA literature, not real observations. Not suitable for empirical analysis or policy inference.

Nigeria Agriculture – Soil Moisture Monitoring

Dataset Description

Sensor readings: depth, moisture %, irrigation triggers.

Category: Weather & Climate
Rows: 120,000
Format: CSV, Parquet
License: MIT
Synthetic: Yes (generated using reference data from FAO, NBS, NiMet, FMARD)

Dataset Structure

Schema

• farm_id: string
• date: string
• depth_cm: integer
• moisture_pct: float
• irrigation_trigger: boolean
• crop: string

Sample Data

| farm_id     | date       |   depth_cm |   moisture_pct | irrigation_trigger   | crop    |
|:------------|:-----------|-----------:|---------------:|:---------------------|:--------|
| FARM-045605 | 2023-01-07 |         30 |            5   | True                 | cocoa   |
| FARM-024488 | 2022-12-20 |         30 |           24.2 | False                | maize   |
| FARM-010166 | 2022-09-08 |         60 |           31.6 | False                | cassava |
| FARM-048011 | 2023-11-16 |         10 |           25.7 | False                | millet  |
| FARM-045565 | 2023-02-28 |         60 |           15.5 | False                | cassava |

Data Generation Methodology

This dataset was synthetically generated using:

1. Reference Sources:

   • FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) - crop yields, production data
   • NBS (National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria) - farm characteristics, surveys
   • NiMet (Nigerian Meteorological Agency) - weather patterns
   • FMARD (Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) - extension guides
   • IITA (International Institute of Tropical Agriculture) - agronomic research

2. Domain Constraints:

   • Crop calendars and phenology (planting/harvest windows)
   • Agro-ecological zone characteristics (Sahel, Sudan Savanna, Guinea Savanna, Rainforest)
   • Nigeria-specific realities (smallholder dominance, market dynamics, conflict zones)
   • Statistical distributions matching national agricultural patterns

3. Quality Assurance:

   • Distribution testing (KS test, chi-square)
   • Correlation validation (rainfall-yield, fertilizer-yield, yield-price)
   • Causal consistency (DAG-based generation)
   • Multi-scale coherence (farm → state aggregations)
   • Ethical considerations (representative, unbiased)

See QUALITY_ASSURANCE.md in the repository for full methodology.

Use Cases

• Machine Learning: Yield prediction, price forecasting, pest detection, supply chain optimization
• Policy Analysis: Agricultural program evaluation, subsidy impact assessment, food security planning
• Research: Climate-agriculture interactions, market dynamics, technology adoption patterns
• Education: Teaching agricultural economics, data science applications in agriculture

Limitations

• Synthetic data: While grounded in real distributions, individual records are not real observations
• Simplified dynamics: Some complex interactions (e.g., multi-generational pest populations) are simplified
• Temporal scope: Covers 2022-2025; may not reflect longer-term trends or future climate scenarios
• Spatial resolution: State/LGA level; does not capture micro-level heterogeneity within localities

Citation

If you use this dataset, please cite:

@dataset{nigeria_agriculture_2025,
  title = {Nigeria Agriculture – Soil Moisture Monitoring},
  author = {Electric Sheep Africa},
  year = {2025},
  publisher = {Hugging Face},
  url = {https://huggingface.co/datasets/electricsheepafrica/nigerian_agriculture_soil_moisture_monitoring}
}

Related Datasets

This dataset is part of the Nigeria Agriculture & Food Systems collection:

• https://huggingface.co/collections/electricsheepafrica/nigeria-agriculture-and-food-systems

Contact

For questions, feedback, or collaboration:

• Organization: Electric Sheep Africa
• Collection: Nigeria Agriculture & Food Systems
• Repository: https://github.com/electricsheepafrica/nigerian-datasets

Changelog

Version 1.0.0 (October 2025)

• Initial release
• 120,000 synthetic records
• Quality-assured using FAO/NBS/NiMet reference data