Shea nut and poverty alleviation in Northern Ghana

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