WikTrop: the collaborative portal devoted to tropical and Mediterranean plants

For ten years now, WikTrop has offered a collaborative space devoted to knowing and managing the plants found in various tropical and Mediterranean farming systems. The portal serves to capitalise on, share and disseminate scientific and empirical knowledge acquired both through research and field experience. WikTrop is coordinated by CIRAD, and was initially developed for Madagascar, the Comoros, Mauritius and Réunion, before being opened up to all tropical and Mediterranean zones. It is a compilation of data on weeds, service plants and fodder plants. WikTrop currently covers more than 1000 species that are abundantly documented and lavishly illustrated, notably with 3-D photos of inflorescences, fruits and seeds taken under a digital microscope by CIRAD’s ALF herbarium team, several thousand field observations and hundreds of scientific and technical documents.  

WikTrop is intended for professionals working in tropical agronomy: farmers, technicians, researchers, teachers and students. The platform provides free access to detailed pages on the species, which include scientific and common names and botanical descriptions. They also contain information on their biology, harmfulness, and management methods. By compiling this information, WikTrop helps to improve knowledge of the species concerned and weed control in crop systems. It fits into CIRAD’s strategy of promoting and disseminating knowledge by means of open, collaborative tools accessible to all.

A collaborative tool to benefit interdisciplinarity    

In addition to giving access to information, the portal is a participatory tool open to all. The WikTrop community currently represents 1500 registered users, who can publish geolocated field observations and share technical or scientific documents, gradually supplementing the species pages. It has thousands of regular visitors. It also provides help with botanical identification, thanks to suggestions from users and decision support tools such as IDAO (a software that builds an identikit picture of the plant) and the Pl@ntNet image recognition system, which is directly integrated into WikTrop.   

WikTrop rests on a very broad range of fields:
agronomy, weed science, phenology, agrostology, computing and data processing, geography, etc. That interdisciplinarity serves to combine expertise in weed science, rangeland management, horticulture and tropical crops. This makes it a space to collaborate and e on the knowledge acquired over several decades by various CIRAD units (AMAP, AIDA, SELMET, HortSys, GECO, etc). 

WikTrop is connected to several leading scientific portals. In particular, there are links between WikTrop and Feedipedia on plant fodder quality, Knomana on chemical pesticide substances obtained from plants, and BOOST-OI for inventorying agroecology research projects. WikTrop is also a source of data for the GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility) portal, supplying it with validated, geolocated observation data. These interconnections boost data circulation and interoperability between different knowledge sources.   

Non-stop development supported by an active international community 

WikTrop was originally developed for the Indian Ocean islands, but now covers all tropical and Mediterranean regions. In encouraging players to network, the platform has enabled collaborations in New Caledonia, Ivory Coast, the west indies, French Guiana and Algeria. It is a true shared database, and fosters dialogue about shared issues between researchers, teachers and grassroots players from various world regions and disciplines.  

Several external partners from various countries are also involved in the platform, including universities (University of Tlemcen, Algeria); research centres (FOFIFA - Madagascar, CNDRS - Comoros, MSIRI - Mauritius, IAC - New Caledonia, CNRA - Ivory Coast); technical institutes (eRcane – Réunion, CTCS – Guadeloupe, CTCS – Martinique; a Chamber of Agriculture (French Guiana) and a training centre (Formaterra, Réunion).   

After ten years of development, the portal has opened out to encompass other zones than those initially specified. Its development relies on the active participation active of the community, fuelling it and helping to supplement its content. WikTrop is developing non-stop to remain up-to-date and satisfy user requirements, thanks to the addition of new functions and the constant improvements to make it more user-friendly. The aim is to guarantee users and research and development projects associated with the portal an operational tool that can be adapted to growing demands from the worlds of research, development and agricultural training.    

A video tutorial in how to use WikTrop is now available on CIRAD’s YouTube channel.