data in brief for daad project.xlsx

The survey that gave the dataset herewith was derived through a multistage sampling technique using a well-structured questionnaire from 320 UCs farming households from 36 randomly sampled villages from the North West, Mpumalanga, and Limpopo provinces, South Africa. The study documented 21 UCs distributed among 14 families. Fabaceae and Salicaceae families had the highest proportion of edible plant species in the study area. Additionally, the finding revealed that climate change impacts are evident by a significant decline in UCs diversity, productivity, and food security among rural farmers. Consequently, various CSA adopted include organic manure application, crop rotation, diversification and agroforestry. Therefore, the study concluded that there is a great need to identify the diversity of UCs species, their economic importance, cultivation, consumption patterns, and food security, as such studies are scarce in South Africa.