ECONOMIC PROSPECTS OF PLANT BIODIVERSITY OF NIGERIA AND THE CHALLENGE OF MANAGING OUR PLANT SPECIES FOR SUSTAINABILITY (Review Completed - Accepted)
Light is beamed on the diverse food-producing plants for human beings, livestock, farm animals and fishes. Light is also shed on shelter-producing plants and the cotton-producing plant, to complete the primary necessities of life, met by plant biodiversity of West Africa – a sub-region important as part of the region in which much biodiversity is concentrated. Some light is equally shed on some other important economic benefits of these plants, as well as the large number of miscellaneous uses of which plant biodiversity is put in West Africa. The paper is concluded with a remark that emphasizes the fact that humankind has established a mutually benefitting interaction with plant biodiversity of West Africa. This benefit has been felt by humankind from diverse economic advantages derived from the plants, while the plants have also benefitted by being improved in their quality, with many by being domesticated, while many have had an extension in their geographical range across the continents of the world, through the intervention of humankind.
Keywords: Cotton-producing Plant, Economic Perspective, Food-producing plants, Miscellaneous Uses, Plant biodiversity, Shelter-producing Plants, West Africa