The Northern Tree

    This tree is not just a tree; it is a source of income for many people. The value of this tree in Northern Ghana is superior, for this reason most communities have put a ban on the cutting down of this tree to signify its importance. Its fruit is a very nutritious nut and after eating this fruit the seed is not thrown away this is because it contains an important commodity that needs to be extracted for Shea butter. This tree is called the Shea tree which in the Northern language is called the ‘Taan Tia’. Shea butter is a traditional butter mostly found in West Africa, it’s been used for many centuries         

Shea nut tree

                        

Today, we take a look at Shea butter processing as one of the income generation activities that our income generation groups are into, their challenges and the returns they gain from it.

        Shea butter is extracted from Shea nuts. The nuts are mostly picked by women during the raining season, between the periods of August to October.

The fresh fruits are boiled and allowed to dry, they then crush it to remove the kernel from the hard outer shell. The crushed nuts are then pounded to smaller particles using a local mortar and pestle. They then fry the pounded nuts. The nuts are then grinded into Shea paste. Water is then added to the paste and mixed by hand until the butter suspends on top of the water. The butter is washed continuously until it becomes white. The raw butter is then boiled until it becomes pure Shea butter. The pure Shea better is then scooped out levering the residue. The hot Shea butter is then allowed to cool and solidified before it is sent to the market.

Rahama and Louis stirring shea butter with Madama Habibata

Madame Habibata scooping out shea butter

      A woman in the Shea butter business said they sometimes get bitten by snakes and stung by scorpions in the bush when they go to pick the nuts. She has been in the Shea butter business over ten years now and it has been her main source of income, however she says getting ready market for her product has been a major challenge, because it takes her a long time to sell her products. This makes it difficult to save money to increase her production capacity. She will like to join a co-operative in order to promote her business. The North has so many potential cash crops that when these crops are utilized to its fullness, they would have greatly helped in the reduction of poverty in the three Northern regions. The Shea fruit is used for making soap, as a lubricant for vehicles and other heavy duty machines and also used for cooking. Shea nut is used in almost every household in the Northern part of Ghana. 

The three Northern regions are the poorest in the country, however, surprising the usage of Shea products has spread far and wide nationally and globally. It is however surprising that a community with a very important cash crop as the Shea tree is wallowing in poverty. This can be attributed to behavioural attitudes of the people and some government policies that are not so favourable to the economic fortunes of the North. Shea butter is mixed with chocolate to give it that smooth taste in the mouth. Around 95 percent of all Shea products are used by companies such as Nestlé and The Hershey Company as a substitute for cocoa butter, to create the melt-in-your-mouth texture and clean snap consumers associate with good chocolate (the Chronicle news paper, August 19, 2015). 

The market for Shea butter has doubled in the past 10 years, according to the Global Shea Alliance, which is based in Ghana’s capital, Accra. That demand has sent the price of unrefined Shea butter soaring, from around $900 a metric tonne before the year 2000, to an average of $2000 over the past three years. Last year, after a bad harvest, prices reached a high of $4000 a tonne as demand outstripped supply (the chronicle news paper, August 19, 2015).  

Adamu is a 65-year old woman from Sagnarigu Dungu, a community in Ghana’s Northern Region. She has been working with the Sangnarigu Women’s Shea Butter Group for 12 years. After getting married, she began producing Shea butter on her own. "I used to make about GHC 6.OO (US$3.00) a month, but now I earn approximately GHC 50.00 (US$25.00) a month", she said, during emergencies, she goes to sell some Shea butter at the local market. This has drastically reduced her borrowing and improved savings (UNDP, Success story from undp.org).

Shea butter

The Shea butter processing venture is an economic activity that can boost the local economy of the North and this Northern tree has over the years survived the harsh weather conditions of northern Ghana. The Shea butter produced is not only highly valuable, but is a core ingredient to local life in Northern Ghana, not only for the global consumers but also for the Ghanaian people that benefit from this wonderful and natural tree.