Crop Wild Relatives (CWRs) Occurrence in Ghana

Study Extent

The study included data collection on CWRs on all the ecological regions of Ghana on vegetables, grains, cereals, root and tubers. The study was conducted from 1964 to 2017.

Sampling

The project was to digitize all CWRs accessions under conservation to know their abundance, economic uses so as to manage their utilization by grouping them into commodity discipline all ecological regions of Ghana. All location of CWRs were recorded with GPS device and geographic coordinates taken. Genetic materials (germplasm) of all identified species were taken. More than 3600 records were taken by collection team put into twenty groups made up of Research scientists, Technical Officers and Drivers. Wild Crop Relative database were created from the CSIR-PGRRI Passport database and sorted from “Poaceae, Leguminosae, Papilionaceae, Glaberrima, Pennisetum” families. Seven Wild Crop Relatives were gathered for the database. DecimalLatitude and decimalLongitude were calculated using Google Map: https://maps.google.com/ for the towns coordinates. Coordinate of uncertainty were also calculated using Georeferencing Calculator: http://manisnet.org/gci2.html to find towns coordinates and distance to the place on the Map. Status of sample was from; Abandon farm, farm, fields, grassland, grave pit, river banks, roadside, per-urban, lowland, perennial pool, swamp, pond margin, pool margin, rice field, residential plot. Material types were Fruits, seeds, grass, creeping herb, erect herb, shrub and flowers.

Quality Control

Only flora CWRs species were sampled. DecimalLatitude and decimalLongitude of germplasm collecting places were calculated. All egetables, grains, cereals, root and tubers germplasm collections were recorded.

Method steps

1. All data points were entered in excel worksheet using the Darwin Core standard template for event core sample data with associated occurrence extensions and cleaned from errors using the filter on the excel worksheet. All names were resolved and verified or validated using the Taxonomic Name Resolution Service V.40 and Global Name Resolver. Google map and Georeference calculator were used in verifying the location and calculating the coordinate uncertainty in metres. The Canadensys coordinate conversion was used in changing the geographic coordinates from DDMMSS to decimal coordinates. Dates were parsed using the Canadensys date parsing. InfoXY version 2.0 was used in validation all the geographic data associated with the species. Geographic data associated with the datasets were further validated with Geolocate software. The data was not georeferenced was georeferenced using the georeferencing protocol MaNIS/HerpNet/ORNIS Georeferencing Guidelines. Thus, the georeferencing required verification as only GPS coordinates of the location where the data was recorded during the data collection process. Quality checks such as the following were followed during the cleaning of the data and writing of the metadata associated with the dataset. The required template for occurrence dataset was used. The required and recommended fields were duly filled. The recommended data cleaning softwares and reference books were used. Data cleaning procedure and methods were meticulously followed to produce as far as practically possible to produce data files that are fit for use and publishing.

Data on CWRs occurrence records were collected from Ghana between latitudes 5.04717073691972S and 111.049038346537106N and longitudes -3.1640625W and 0.439453125E.