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Shea nut and poverty alleviation in Northern Ghana

Fri, 15 Oct 2010 Source: Kwode, Paul Achonga

By Paul Achonga Kwode

Felecia Kawe (pseudonym) was about 11 years of age when she died through shea nut

picking. She did not die a natural death as was the case in most traditional

Ghanaian homes. Kawe died strangely on 16th May 2010 through snake bite in the bush

where she had gone with the friends at dawn to bring home some shea nuts. Her family

of four depended on the shea nut for their daily livinghood since the father died

many years ago leaving the blind mother to upbring the three children alone.

Manyoro is a village of about fifty three kilometers from Navrongo in the Upper

East Region of Ghana where she lived. The death of Kawe sent great shivers

throughout the village not only for her death but how the family was going to cop

without her since she was the bread winner of the family. Their dependence on the

shea nut for their daily living occurs mostly at the peak of the shea season at the

months of April-August. They did not only depend on it for their breakfast but

sometimes for lunch and super.

Her death illustrates the clear case of high risks associated with shea nut

picking. Kawe’s tragic death is only one out of many who die during shea picking or

associated causes. Most of the shea nut pickers across the shea producing parts of

the country do not have any protective clothing, Wellington boots, hand gloves and

hence exposes them to harmful creatures and the negativities of the weather, for

instance, storm could strike someone dead in the bush.

The veritable conditions in which shea nut pickers go through before picking the

nuts are too precarious yet gain just a little for their deadly efforts while the

big merchants and industry players profit hugely from their sweat. The pickers have

not kept their problems to themselves but had on countless occasions complained of

the dangerous conditions and processes they pass through daily before picking the

nuts and appealed to the government and civil society and NGOs to assist them with

protective kits. Some of their complains included that of being bitten by snakes

because they use their bare hands and sometimes bare feet to comb the bush in search

of the nut. Madam Abdulai Zuwera of Tungteiya Shea Butter Extraction Women

Association of Gushiegu told this writer that "It is out of the nut that we make our

daily living and support our children in schools and if the business is left to

collapse, where will our future be?"

Madam Zuwera said she would be grateful if they were assisted with tricycles, hand

gloves, Wellington boots and head lamps that would help improve their business

tremendously saying if such assistance is extended to others, it would reduce the

risks associated with shea picking.

Shea tree is a wild crop scattered across parts of Africa and in Ghana , it could

be found in large quantities in the three Northern Regions with few also in some

parts of the Volta and Brong Ahafo Regions. Since it is not grown, there is

currently no plantation in the country about the shea but pickers mostly women comb

the bush to pick the nut. Such an orthodox practice results in larger proportion of

the nuts being lost reducing production due to the inability of the pickers to pick

them. Shea is often referred to as “Life” especially in Dioula language in Burkina

Faso and where it is also generally grown wild, with little need for any special

cultivation or nourishment but of late, there are some few plantations of the crop

in Burkina Faso .

Almost all parts of the tree have some practical use. The bark is an ingredient in

traditional medicines against certain childhood ailments and minor scrapes and cuts.

The shell of the nuts can repel mosquitoes. Above all, the fruity part of the nut,

when crushed, yields a vegetable oil that could be used in cooking, soap-making and

skin and hair care. Harvesting the nuts and making the butter have traditionally

been women's work. Men usually are involved only in transport and marketing.

The cash crop shea is also valuable for the treatment of certain diseases by

traditional herbalists. It also offers employment for several individuals who

partake in all of its value chain processes. According to the Vice President of

Ghana John Dramami Mahama, more than 900,000 women in the three Northern regions,

collect over 130,000 tonnes of dry nuts annually. The industry also benefits close

to two million poor people, about 95 per cent of whom are rural households, though

its full potential is yet to be exploited. The infant industry is an attractive

business venture earning about 30 million dollars of foreign exchange for the

national economy. Vice President Mahama estimated that the amount could triple when

fully developed and it could also provide jobs for the teaming youths, women and the

aged.

In Burkina Faso , they call it "women's gold." When crushed and processed, the

nuts of the shea tree yield a vegetable fat known as shea butter. It has long been a

common ingredient in local foods and soap, but its qualities also make it a valuable

export, for use in the manufacture of chocolate and cosmetics. The tree grows

throughout the semi-arid Sahel region of West Africa, but the largest concentration

is in Burkina Faso, where exports of shea butter and unprocessed shea kernels

brought in CFA5 bn ($7 mn) in 2000, making it the country's third most important

export, after cotton and livestock and is recently the leading producer of shea

averaging 50,000Mt while Ghana follows second with production of 45,000MT per annum.

It was therefore heartwarming when Dr Joshua Yidana, Head of the Horticultural

Department of the University for Development Studies (UDS) told this writer that he

has been experimenting with the shea tree through grafting propagation. According to

him, the method had proved that the shea tree, through grafting could bear fruits in

a gestation period of between three to six years. He said the research is a

breakthrough and if successfully implemented could reduce the gestation period of

the crop from 10-15 years to between three to six years and therefore increase

production its products. The findings are intended to enable farmers and the

government to make a plantation of the crop just as it is with cocoa.

Dr Yidana said the first ever grafting of the shea nut was successful in 2008 and

that he is studying the grafting method at Zoonaaliyi near Nyakpala where about

1,200 grafted plants covering about a hectare of land is being observed. Dr.

Yidana’s experiments just like any other academic work have generated heated debates

in the academic circles particularly from the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana

(CRIG) who expressed doubts about the findings. According to them, they have been

making several studies on the plant especially on its gestation period but were yet

to come to such conclusions.

A wide range of Non Government Organization (NGO) (both national and

international) have shown much interest in promoting shea butter production and

marketing in Ghana and support has ranged from linkages to markets, assistance with

obtaining technology and training in business skills. Some of these NGOs include;

Send Ghana, SNV, Oxfam, GTZ and a host of others with the hope that when the sector

is properly developed, it could alleviate poverty and empower women of whom most of

these NGOs seek to protect. Strangely enough, some of these NGOs who seek to protect

the interest of the poor and vulnerable in the shea industry turn to exploit them by

setting some shea processing centers where women pick and process the shea. The poor

and vulnerable are usually cheated at the point of purchase as their products are

bought cheapily by some of these NGOs. Another point of cheat is through the value

chain of the shea as the companies in the shea industry

make huge profits at the expense of the poor. Some of the NGOs also give loans or

credits to these vulnerable farmers in the shea sector with huge interest rates. It

is however important that the NGOs advocated for the best for the shea industry but

the interest of the vulnerable farmers must be paramount else they may be using the

poor farmers to fight for their own interest. Some of the interventions of some

NGOs must however be lauded.

It appears from the forgoing discussions that the shea industry faces numerous

challenges which are surmountable. Some other challenges the shea industry is faced

with included uncontrolled pricing both local and international, inadequate

information on the crop due to limited research, bush burning, lack of political

will, lost of shea trees through cutting the trees for charcoal and a host of other

copious problems that needs to be addressed to pave way for more prolific investment

with great dividends from the shea industry. The intervention would not only

alleviate poverty through job creation but also contribute to meeting the Millennium

Development Goals of reducing poverty as well as enhancing the socio-economic

fortunes of the country. Other school of thought had also advocated for the

de-linking shea industry from the COCOBOD to give it briefing space to propel,

arguing that the shea under the COCOBOD appears to be dying gradually.

There seems to be a hope in the shea industry with the ongoing implementation of

the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA). The SADA intends to nurture

and grow the shea industry as part of other interventions to accelerate development

of the Northern parts of the country to reduce poverty and hopes are already high

for the best to be done for that industry. If indeed efforts are being made to

bridge the development gap between the Northern Ghana and Southern Ghana, then the

shea nut industry must be given serious consideration because it holds the key to

the successes and improvement of many lives just as the cocoa in the Southern Ghana

. The shea is a major poverty alleviator and a catalyst to breach the North-South

developmental gap and government must act and act appropriately.

END

Columnist: Kwode, Paul Achonga