Using GIS to check co-ordinates of genebank accessions

The geographic co-ordinates of the locations where germplasm accessions hav e been collected are usually documented in genebank databases. However, the co-ordinate data are often incomplete and may contain errors. This paper d escribes procedures to check for errors, to determine the cause of these er rors and to assign new co-ordinates, using Geographical Information Systems (GIS). These procedures can assist in improving the quality of genebank da tabases, and with that, increase the capability for analysis and use of cro p genetic diversity.