Vegetable Germplasm Occurrence

Study Extent

The study was conducted across Ghana and Togo. Samples were collected based on the various ecological zones.

Sampling

The four vegetable germplasm (Eggplant, Okro, Pepper and Tomato) were collected from 1st September 1964 to 4th September 2014. The collections were carried out in nine regions of Ghana namely: Northern, Upper West, Upper East, Eastern, Volta, Central, Brong-Ahafo, Western and Ashanti Regions. One thousand nine hundred and fifty-seven accessions of the vegetable crops were collected by CSIR-Crop Research Institute, CSIR-Plant Genetic Resources Research Institute, and CSIR-Savannah Agricultural Research Institute. Twenty-two columns were used for 1957 records. The collection team was put into eighty-seven groups made up of Research scientists, Technical Officers and Drivers. Vegetable database were created from the CSIR-PGRRI Passport database and sorted from “Solanaceae” families.DecimalLatitude and decimalLongitude were calculated using Google Map: https://maps.google.com/ for the towns coordinates. Coordinate of uncertainty were also calculated usingGeoreferencing Calculator: http://manisnet.org/gci2.html to find towns coordinates and distance to the place on the Map. Status of sample was from; farm store, market, garden, fields, institution, backyards, near refuge dump, river banks, weedy, landrace, wild, cultivar, roadside, forest, home garden and garden. Material types were stem, seeds, pods and fruits

Quality Control

ecimalLatitude and decimalLongitude of germplasm collecting places were calculated. All vegetable germplasm collections were recorded. All measuring were correctly calibrated. All recordings were made in uniform units.

Method steps

1. All data were entered in excel worksheet using the Darwin Core standard using the template for occurrence data and cleaned from errors using the open refine. All names were resolved and verified using the Taxonomic Name Resolution Service V.40. Google map and Georeference calculator were used in calculating the coordinate of 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. Being Secondary data, the occurrence ID was generated using the data holder institution: the sample plots where the data was collected together with the name of the project and the area where the data was collected were assigned number The data was not georeferenced so this was georeferenced using the georeferencing protocol MaNIS/HerpNet/ORNIS Georeferencing Guidelines. Thus the georeferencing requires verification as only GPS coordinates of the location where the data was recorded during the data collection process.

The species were ranked to the species level

1. Solanum aethiopicum
   common name: Egg plant rank: species
2. Solanum melongena
   common name: Garden egg rank: species
3. Abelmoschus esculentus
   common name: Okra rank: species
4. Capsicum annuum
   common name: Papper rank: species
5. Solanum lycopersicum
   common name: Tomato rank: species

Data was collected on vegetable germplasm between 1964 to 2016 in Ghana and Togo both in West Africa