‘Women fight poverty in Niger through Shea Butter production’

What is Shea Butter Village?In order to develop shea sector in Niger State, we undertook a study tour to Ghana to see for ourselves what they are doing. Therefore, having understudied what are the challenges in respect of producing shea butter, we came to the conclusion that shear butter village is the solution for us […]

What is Shea Butter Village?
In order to develop shea sector in Niger State, we undertook a study tour to Ghana to see for ourselves what they are doing. Therefore, having understudied what are the challenges in respect of producing shea butter, we came to the conclusion that shear butter village is the solution for us in as much as we want to achieve quality shea butter production. Therefore, shea butter village is one stop shop that addresses all the challenges associated to the production of high quality shear butter commodity. Shea butter village is a borrowed name after the first Shea Butter Village that was established in Ghana. We are also working in partnership with a German Technical Corporation (GIZ) as our technical partners in shea butter production. GIZ has also engaged a consultant for us from Ghana.
How do you get the shear nuts?
Shea tree nuts is basically the raw material needed for the production of shea butter. Don’t forget these nuts are for now only picked in the wild, this account for the fact that we are picking only 30 percent of what is in the wild.
Do you have any plan of domesticating the shea tree as against going into the wild searching for shea nuts?
So far, I have been to so many countries that include Ghana, Burkina Faso, Mali and Cote D’voire to understudy shea butter production and out of these countries none has succeeded in the domestication of shea tree. I am happy to tell that Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR) Shea Butter Research Center,  Bida, is into a research in an attempt to see how we can domesticate the shea tree by way of reducing the gestation period. You know, shea tree can take up to 15 to 30 years before it starts fruiting. But what NIFOR Shea Research Center is doing is to see how it can reduce the gestation period to 7 or even five years. Although, there is no break through yet, but the one so far produced by the center is the best compared to any improved seedling. We have the one now which at five years it has started flowering, hoping by the end of the year it will start fruiting and I think that is the best, so far. I have seen grafting that of Ghana, Mali and Burkina Faso. So, generally everybody picks the shea nut in the wild. In Niger State we have plans for Shear tree domestication plan, we are working toward trying to have a shear park land where we can have a large concentration of shea trees. We are going to remove the non shear tree and replace them with the improved shea tree variety that is expected to come from NIFOR so that we can have highly densely populated shear tress in an area we intend to call shear park land.
What are the processes involved in producing shea butter?
Bear in mind, for now, that the production process of shea butter is women dominated. Basically, there are three methods of producing shea nuts and shea butter. There are the traditional, mechanical and chemical methods. The traditional method is the method that produces grade ‘A’ quality of shea butter. The process begins with a woman trekking to the bush to pick nuts, store it, par boil it, sundry it and de-husk it. This is the first stage and it takes place in the village. And after doing that, the woman pieces it before taking it for milling, and later sits down and nodule it with clean water. She keeps doing so up to the time it turns into light product in a sort of a whitish color as she adds water while scooping same. She also de-fat the product before boiling it and, afterward, the oil comes out.
Looking at the processes, don’t you think it is labour intensive?
It is labour intensive and that is why it has become our biggest challenge. You can imagine by the time the rural woman treks for this long distance to the bush to pick nuts, when she comes back, she has no storage facility. When it is time for her to par boil the nuts, she has no good drinking water, not to talk of using good water for par boiling. She needs sun-drying slabs which is not available for her, she, therefore, de-husks, pieces it and removed the almond after which she goes to the next stage by frying it. That is not the final stage as she needs a milling machine for her pieced almond which, again, she does not have. Therefore, to get that service, she has to go to the neighbouring village and that consumes money and time because she has to transport herself and her commodity to and fro. Don’t forget shea butter activities usually coincide with raining season so by the time that she goes to the bush to pick the nuts, she is also expected to come back home and prepare food for her husband who is in the farm. While coming back after taking the food to him, she will now pick some nuts along the way back home and this mainly accounts to the low level of production as only little nuts  could be picked in the wild. End product of this process are usually of bad quality, hence, leaving them at the mercy of the middlemen who usually advance some amount of money to the women at the beginning of the season to produce the commodity for them. But, painfully enough, at the end of the day despite the rigour these women went through, it is the middlemen that determine the price. These women process this commodity under the tree and, as I said earlier, the production period of shear butter usually coincides with rainy season, therefore, they cannot work when it rains. Road side is the only place they can sundry their product.
Having identified these problems, what does the government do to address them?
When you visit our shea butter village you will find out that one, there is a tourist facility, there is provision of borehole, sundry slabs, energy saving stoves, a technology introduced by GIZ for saving  energy, now they only used 10 percent of the amount of fire woods they hitherto used for production. We also have a milling machine, storage facility for both raw materials and the end products.