Comparative Assessment of Medicinal Plant Diversity in Agroforestry Systems and Open Farmlands in Northern Katsina State, Nigeria
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33003/Keywords:
Medicinal plant, Agroforestry, Shannon-Weiner index, Ethnobotany, Biodiversity conservation, Semi-arid NigeriaAbstract
This study assessed medicinal plant diversity in agroforestry and open farmland systems in northern Katsina State, Nigeria. A comparative field-based approach was employed across parklands, homegardens and open farmlands using standard quadrat sampling methods for vegetation assessment. A total of 82 medicinal plant species belonging to 37 families were recorded. Species diversity was measured using the Shannon–Wiener index (H’), with parklands (H′ ≈ 1.75 ± 0.30) and homegardens (H′ ≈ 1.61 ± 0.44) showing higher diversity than open farmlands (H′ ≈ 0.91 ± 0.48). Welch’s ANOVA indicated a significant difference in medicinal plant diversity among land-use types (F (2, 105.58) = 69.65, p < 0.001). Post-hoc comparisons (Games-Howell test) revealed that both parklands and homegardens had significantly higher medicinal plant diversity than open farmlands. Significant difference was observed between parklands and homegardens. The findings conclude that agroforestry systems play an important role in conserving medicinal plant diversity in semi-arid environments, highlighting their value for biodiversity conservation and sustainable land management.
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