Abstract:
This study was conducted to determine the biodiversity of the plant collections at the National Field Genebank at the National Centre for Genetic Resources and Biotechnology (NACGRAB), with the view of evaluating the conservation strategy of the ex situ conservation of recalciterant crops in the genebank for effective conservation and sustainable utilization. The results reveal that three hundred and sixty-one plants were identified in the field gene bank, spread across ninety-six plant families. The studies further show that the family Caesalpiniaceae has the highest number (20) of represented plant species; followed by Euphorbiaceae and Rubiaceae, each having nineteen representative plant species each. The location of the National Field Genebank at NACGRAB in Ibadan, on the latitude 7° 22’ North of the equator and longitude 3° 50’ East of the Greenwich Meridian, was found to have a positive effect on the adaptability of the plants collected from various different ecological and geographical zones of the country, since it was observed that Ibadan has a somewhat transitory climate between the moist tropical forests and the dry savanna regions of the country, both extreme zones being the natural habitats of some of the plant germplasms in the Field Genebank. The advantage of ex situ live collections over in situ conservation in terms of protection of the collections in Nigeria was also stressed. The need to establish more ex situ live collections in the different climatic zones of the Country to facilitate more conservation activities is also emphasized. Some of the endangered and endemic plant species yet to be collected and conserved are enumerated, so as to receive attention from conservation scientists in Nigeria.
