Abstract
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•A barrier to agricultural diversification is dispersed data on underutilised crops.•We designed and developed a database to organise crops value chain information.•We demonstrate how the database is utilised to provide alternative cropping options.•We share the database in order to motivate diversification of local food systems.
Digital agriculture is driven by the interrelated needs to increase crop production, develop sustainable food systems and cope with the global change. Databases exist for several major crops but a barrier to increasing agrobiodiversity is the lack, and dispersed nature, of information for variously termed minor, orphan or underutilised crops. In this article, we describe an attempt to build a globally accessible database that can be used to store information for underutilised crops. A relational data model was adopted due to its robustness in terms of prototyping and building user interfaces for data governance and dissemination. We have reviewed the design of related agricultural databases, data standards and crop diversification priorities, to build a data model that encompasses major elements of the value chain of crops in the food system. Due to the importance of data accuracy, we added a metadata table that stores information about the sources of all data recorded in the database. We also built a web-based user interface for data management and access. The open-access user interface allows simple data sorting and filtering operations based on the user's needs. As an example of potential use, data were used to build an automated crop selection tool that could shortlist suitable crops based on location at global scale. Other use-cases are discussed including the development of metrics, indicators for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and developing bespoke diversification solutions.