A Review of the Potential of Moringa oleifera Plantations for Economic Diversification and Climate Change Mitigation in Yobe State, Nigeria

Abstract

The biggest worldwide concern today is providing food security for a growing population. In addition, the growing agricultural activities including farming and infrastructural development is putting pressure on the scarce land resources paving way for land degradation and ultimately climate change. For generations, the variety of plants has been essential to human health and well-being, providing food, nutrition, medicine, shelter, and energy.  Only 7000 of the approximately 39,000 known plant species are grown or gathered for food.  Governments in Sub Saharan Africa view Moringa as a preferred “developmental tree” with the ability to address a number of socioeconomic issues, including food insecurity, poverty, and malnutrition. It is a pantropical plant also known as the Horse radish tree. The objective of this review is to outline the use of Moringa oleifera plantation as a means of diversifying economy and improving food security and mitigating climate change in the Sahelian state of Yobe. A systematic literature review is adopted as a method to search on secondary materials in published journals from google scholar, PubMed, science direct, Springer and Taylor and Francis.  Journals and articles covering from 2015 to 2026 were mostly searched using the key terms Moringa cultivation, food security, climate change and economic diversification. Results obtained indicate that numerous studies were conducted detailing the nutritional and therapeutic qualities of Moringa were published in mainstream scientific publications within the last eleven years (2015-2026).  The literature search is limited to Moringa cultivation and economic uses only excluding other economic trees and culinary herbaceous plant.  The review emphasizes Moringa's economic significance in combating starvation and its promise as a commercially viable tree species in Yobe State, advocating for the establishment of Moringa plantations to address desert encroachment. It highlights the many propagation methods of the plant including direct planting of seeds in the field or growing the seeds in the nursery. It also highlights the asexual means of propagating the plant through macro propagation methods such as budding, cutting and layering and also highlights micro propagation of the plant through the use of cell tissue culture system.