Navin Ramankutty
Areas of Expertise
About
Navin Ramankutty is Professor and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Data Science for Sustainable Global Food Systems at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs (SPPGA) and the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES), University of British Columbia. He also serves as the Director of the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES).
Navin’s research concerns global land use change and its implications, focusing on agricultural practice and the implications for environmental change and food security. He employs data and models to address the question of how to feed 9-10 billion people while reducing agriculture’s environmental footprint.
He was the awardee of the Wihuri International Prize in 2020. He contributed to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment report and to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. He was an editor of the journal Global Food Security and Global Ecology and Biogeography, and is an Associate Editor of Environmental Research Letters. He is a Leopold Leadership Fellow.
Teaching
Publications
Featured Publications
1. Sidhu, B. S., Z. Mehrabi, N. Ramankutty, and M. Kandlikar, How can machine learning help in understanding the impact of climate change on crop yields?, Environ. Res. Lett., 18(2), 024008, 10.1088/1748-9326/acb164, 2023.
2. Ricciardi, V., Z. Mehrabi, H. Wittman, D. James, and N. Ramankutty, Higher yields and more biodiversity on smaller farms, Nature Sustainability, 10.1038/s41893-021-00699-2, 2021.
3. Ramankutty, N., Z. Mehrabi, K. Waha, C. Kremen, M. Herrero, and L. Rieseberg, Trends in Global Agricultural Land Use: Implications for Environmental Health and Food Security, Annual Review of Plant Biology, 69, 2018.
4. Martellozzo, F., J. S. Landry, D. Plouffe, V. Seufert, P. Rowhani, and N. Ramankutty, Urban agriculture: a global analysis of the space constraint to meet urban vegetable demand, Environmental Research Letters, 9(6), 064025, 2014.
5. Ray, D. K., N. Ramankutty, N. D. Mueller, P. C. West, and J. A. Foley, Recent patterns of crop yield growth and stagnation, Nature Communications, 3, 1293, 2012.
6. Ramankutty, N., and J. Rhemtulla, Can intensive farming save nature?, Guest Editorial, Front. Ecol. Environ., 10(9), 455-455, 2012.
7. Seufert, V., N. Ramankutty, and J. A. Foley, Comparing the yields of organic and conventional agriculture, Nature, 485(7397), 229-232, 2012.
8. Foley, J. A., N. Ramankutty, K. A. Brauman, E. Cassidy, J. Gerber, M. Johnston, N. D. Mueller, C. O’Connell, D. K. Ray, P. C. West, C. Balzer, E. M. Bennett, S. R. Carpenter, J. Hill, C. Monfreda, S. Polasky, J. Rockström, J. Sheehan, S. Siebert, D. Tilman, and D. P. M. Zaks, Solutions for a Cultivated Planet, Nature, 478(7369), 337-342, 2011.
9. Deryng, D., W. J. Sacks, C. C. Barford, and N. Ramankutty, Simulating the effects of climate and agricultural management practices on global crop yield, Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 25, GB2006, doi:10.1029/2009GB003765, 18 pp., 2011.
10. Ramankutty, N., E. Heller, and J. Rhemtulla, Prevailing Myths about Agricultural Abandonment and Forest Regrowth in the United States, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 100(3), 1-11, 2010.
11. Barona, E., N. Ramankutty, G. Hyman, and O. T. Coomes, The role of pasture and soybean in deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon, Environmental Research Letters, 5(2), 024002, 2010.
12. Ellis, E. C., and N. Ramankutty, Putting people in the map: Anthropogenic biomes of the world, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 6, 439-447, 2008.
13. Ramankutty, N., A. Evan, C. Monfreda, and J. A. Foley, Farming the Planet. 1: The Geographic Distribution of Global Agricultural Lands in the Year 2000, Glob. Biogeochem. Cycles, 22, GB1003, doi:10.1029/2007GB002952, 2008.