The Shea Project is helping Ugandan women improve their lives from sales of organic shea butter in profitable enterprises
In the districts of northern and eastern Uganda, the shea-butter tree is the most conspicuous of the useful trees conserved when clearing land for cultivation. In traditional farming systems, the shea tree grows with millet, sorghum, pigeon pea, cotton, cowpea, beans, cassava and even banana.
Protection of young shea trees is the most critical issue in the regenerative stability of the agro-ecosystem, as the developing tree can remain less than a meter in height for several years, and does not become productive (useful) until its 15th or 20th year. The wood of the shea tree is heavy, strong and termite resistant. It also makes excellent charcoal.
Inside the nutritious fruit is a large hard seed which yields shea-butter, a food-oil, cosmetic and sacred substance of great importance to the people who live with the tree, particularly the women farmers who process the nut and use income from the tree to sustain their families, and to improve their lives. In times of drought and famine, the shea tree typically yields heavily, providing an important nutritional buffer.
The shea-butter from the nilotic shea-butter tree is different from that of the West African varieties in that it is higher in olein, which contains most of the therapeutic substances found in shea-butter. Nilotica shea-butter is softer and more fragrant than West African shea-butters, and this high-value product gives Ugandan women farmers over five times the amount received by their West African counterparts
In West Africa, sheanut and shea-butter prices are set by large multinational corporations which ‘took over’ the shea market following the colonial era. In Uganda, the price of shea products is set by the farmers themselves, based on the actual value of shea products to the farmers who produce it and by Ugandan consumers – prices on the traditional market are about double those of West Africa for both sheanut and shea-butter.
As a natural resource controlled by women, the shea butter tree supports the nutritional and economic health of rural families and sustains indigenous plant and animal biodiversity. This wild and slow-growing savannah tree provides food (nutritious fruit as well as food oil), and revenues from the sale of its annual bounty help rural households to feed themselves, to invest in livestock and other income-generating forms of wealth, to and meet cash requirements including shelter, clothing, health care, taxes, school fees, school uniforms and school books.
The Shea Project
The Shea Project for Local Conservation and Development (The Shea Project), conceived in 1990, is an integrated conservation and development project which now covers an area of over 10,000 square miles (160,000 square kilometers) across northern Uganda, where over 400 community-based groups have been introduced to the project, their total membership representing over 10,000 farming households.
Since 1995, Cooperative Office for Voluntary Organisations (COVOL) has developed working partnerships with NGOs working in southern Sudan and Tanzania. The Shea Project received funding from USAID from 1995 to 1997, with an expansion phase from 1998 to 2002 funded by USAID, the McKnight Foundation, and the EU INCO program, expanding it area of activity across northern and northeastern Uganda, including the districts of Lira, Pader, Katakwi (now Katakwi and Amuria), Kotido (now Abim), Gulu (now Gulu and Amuru) and Kitgum. The Shea Project works in partnership with the Northern Uganda Shea Processors Association (NUSPA), established under the project in 1997, which is a women-managed producer cooperative comprised of over 2000 producers from over 50 producer groups.
In 2006 the Shea Project and NUSPA were able to establish an organic production system and obtained organic certification under USDA-NOP and EEC 2092/91 regulations.
By reinforcing the economic value of the shea-butter tree through expanded markets, the Shea Project has received an enthusiastic response from participating farmers, who have become serious about protection of shea woodland – and serious as well about production of the finest quality shea-butter at a premium price.
Empowering African women
Across Africa, it is women who traditionally harvest shea fruit (an important nutritional resource in and of itself, as it ripens and falls from the tree during the annual ‘hungry season’, when food stocks are lowest and agricultural requirements are highest, in clearing land and planting crops with the coming of the rains).
The shea resource is the domain of women because within the household they are traditionally responsible for gathering of non-agricultural products (e.g. wild fruits), and also because processing the shea nuts into butter is considered women’s work, like most household food processing activities. Very significantly, and unlike most cash-crops, women control the revenues from the sale of shea butter – which they use to care for the cash needs of their households and families.
It is widely recognised across Africa – and in northern Uganda in particular – that while men often use their money in selfish pursuits, meat and liquor etc. – women use their income primarily if not exclusively to care for their households. This includes investing in livestock, cultivation and a wide range of income-generating activities. Women are thus the real engines of local economic development, which is what makes shea butter such a very important resource for rural communities across Africa.
While the nilotica subspecies of the shea tree (Vitellaria paradoxa subspecies nilotica) is found only in the eastern part of the range – Uganda, South Sudan and Ethiopia – the Ugandan variety is very distinct in its composition, being much softer and smoother, with a gentler scent than the Sudanese or Ethiopian varieties. The Ugandan variety is also genetically unique, as proven by recent studies carried out by the French research institute CIRAD from 1998 to 2003.
Ripe shea fruits fall from the tree – in Uganda, from April through June – and are harvested before sunrise by rural women. Children sometimes help, before school. The fruit pulp is nutritious and a very important source of calories, vitamins and minerals during the annual ‘hungry season’ when food stocks are lowest, yet food energy is desperately needed to support the labour requirements of cultivation. Inside the seed (nut) is a kernel which is dried and stored for subsequent processing and extraction of shea butter.
The fruits not eaten during collection are brought home, where the pulp is removed (by eating or removal to make dried fruit preserves, a traditional delicacy) and the fresh nuts laid out on woven mats in the sun to dry.
After a few days of sun-drying (and protection from the rain), the shell of the nut is cracked and removed, and the shea kernel inside is sun-dried for another 4 or 5 days, then stored in traditional granaries (or, for NUSPA’s certified organic production system, in food-grade jute bags). Stored properly, the dried stored nuts may be kept for over a year.
The dried kernels are put twice through a motorised grinding machine, first to break them and a second time to yield a fine powder. The powder is mixed with a small amount of clean boiling water and packed into new cloth bags, which are pressed to yield the oil.
Aside from the disruptions brought by the war, The NUSPA women involved in the Shea Project are fundamentally farmers, rural women raising farming households. As such, they depend on cultivation, and not a cash economy, to raise and sustain their families. Other income-generating activities include making clay pots, for instance – but their production and marketing of certified organic shea butter through the Shea Project is vastly more profitable than those other activities (making pots might bring in a dollar or two a day, making shea butter $100).
While NUSPA would never want its members to become dependent on any sort of export-oriented activity for their survival, the income provided by access to international markets offers these women a unique opportunity to greatly (and quantifiably) improve their lives and living standards of their families – in terms of nutrition, education, medical care and investment of their income from sales of organic shea butter in profitable enterprises.
Beyond the socio-economic benefits to producers from their production and sale of shea butter, the Shea Project has resulted in conservation of this indigenous woodland (objectively verifiable by sampling methods) by providing more profitable opportunities for marketing of shea butter which offer a positive and very tangible economic incentive serve to protect the living tree – and the plant and animal biodiversity which it supports – across whole landscapes.
Source: thesheaproject.org
