THOUGHTS ON FOOD-PRODUCING PLANT BIODIVERSITY OF NIGERIA (Published)
The paper is based on the United Nations theme for World Environment Day for year 2013, which is “Think. Eat. Save.” This paper focuses on the first issue of the theme: “Think.” The thoughts in the paper are devoted to how Nigeria can effectively manage the food-production potentials of the country’s plant biodiversity to assure sustainable feeding of the people and contribute to sustainable development of the country. The paper discusses the diversity of food-producing plants of Nigeria, the challenges facing them and the strategies that could be adopted to curb these challenges and ameliorate them. The diverse food-producing plants highlighted in the paper, include root crops, stem tubers, cereals and legumes. Others include vegetables, condiments, edible oils and spices. Mention is also made of fruit drinks, beverages and sugar. There are also comments on wines and beer got from plant products, and the edible fruits and seeds. The paper also considers the foods of livestock and farm animals, in forms such as live foods, browse plants, animal feedstuffs and food left-overs. The paper highlights the challenges facing food-producing plants of Nigeria to include over-exploitation, natural enemies, anthropogenic influences, natural disasters and climate change. Other man-made challenges facing food-producing plants of Nigeria, include the dwindling food-producing population, the ever-increasing populations of human and animal food consumers, that of food insecurity and that of in-appropriate policies on agricultural development in the country. Suggested strategies to curb the challenges facing the food-producing plants and ameliorate the challenges include encouraging large scale agriculture in the country, adopting the best practices in agriculture noticeable in all other countries across the globe and encouraging the youths to take to agriculture. Others include intensification of researches in crop producing, diseases and pest control, among others
Keywords: Challenges, Food-producing plants, Man-made Problems, Nigeria, Plant biodiversity, Strategies.