Supplementary file 1_Screenhouse-based shade-tolerance assessments of coffee and bean vari

Twenty bush and climbing bean varieties, eight Arabica coffee varieties, and three cover crops were screened under four shade levels (70%, 50%, 35%, and 10% light transmission). The dataset, authored by Jules Ntamwira and last updated in April 2026, contains results from a screenhouse-based study to identify crop species and varieties tolerant to varying shade levels for optimizing multi-strata intercropping.

Use Cases

• Rank crop varieties by shade tolerance based on reported yield and biomass loss metrics.
• Model the relationship between light transmission levels and phenotypic responses like plant height and stem diameter.
• Identify candidate bean and coffee varieties for intercropping systems based on their performance under 10% to 70% light.
• Assess the suitability of common cover crops like velvet bean and elephant grass for use under canopy shade.

Strengths

• Includes results for 20 bush bean, 20 climbing bean, 8 coffee, and 3 cover crop varieties.
• Reports specific quantitative results, such as >84% biomass loss for elephant grass and 48–58% losses for other cover crops.
• Data is licensed under CC-BY-4.0, permitting open sharing and adaptation.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The dataset is a 2.6 MB DOCX file, which may require extraction or conversion for analysis.

Provenance

Source

Jules Ntamwira via figshare.

Collection Method

Screenhouse-based phenotypic screening of crops under controlled light transmission levels.

Time Range

The study period is not specified.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-14 05:38:59; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Likely focused on East and Central Africa, as referenced in the description.