The Shea industry can be said to be underdeveloped and untapped although it is one of the areas that offer unlimited opportunities.
It offers a large number of benefits if the fruit is processed into various finished and partially processed products to feed other industries especially in the food, medicine and cosmetic industries among others.
Mahmoud Mohammed, manager of the Business Resource Center (BRC) of the Rural Enterprises Programme (REP) of the Jirapa Municipal Assembly has outlined quite a number of reasons the shea industry in Ghana, especially in the northern Ghana where the tree predominantly grows, can not compete with its counterparts such as the cocoa, coffee and cashew tree plants in spite of its immense economic value.
He says much of the reason is the perception that the tree grows in the wild and may not be economically viable.
“More attention may have been given to the shea tree and products if farmers and the whole value chain were involved in investing resources, especially financial resources and things would have been much more serious” he said.
Mohamed also underscored the need for a pragmatic government policy for the development of the shea industry, given its cultural and socio-economic significance and potential respectively, especially that the tree thrives in northern Ghana, home to some of the poorest regions in the country and that women are the most engaged in that industry and who are largely disadvantaged in factors of sustainable livelihood such as land acquisition, ownership and usage and who are also vulnerable and marginalized in the society.
He has also mentioned the lack of interest and enthusiasm among the various district assemblies in regarding the shea industry as an important and integral part of their development agendas, quizzing how many times shea seedlings were distributed in the several afforestation and cash crop programmes that have been rolled out in the past years?
He intimated that the shea tree apart from being economically viable, serves as an adversary in the fight against deforestation, an excellent cover vegetation tree that checks erosion and if planted with expert advice, promotes mixed cropping especially when cultivating vegetables such as pepper.
Mahmoud Mohamed is of the view that if careful planning and execution is made a vibrant shea industry could be improved paving way for economic growth in northern Ghana and also improving cottage industry, especially in the food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry which he believes is a panacea to vibrant industrial hub in northern Ghana.
He has described trees such as the shea, baobab, neem and dawada native to the area are versatile and may require minimal care because they have been observed to cope with the prevailing conditions they grow in.
There are some research studies that are going on concerning the tree notably by the Savannah Agriculture Research Institute (SARI) and some universities such as the University for Development Studies (UDS) to improve all aspects of the tree however, Mohammed believes that if successes should be chalked research work should be in the magnitude of that of the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) and organisations such as the Northern Development Authority take a leading role in revamping and developing the Shea industry.
So far some threats have been found affecting the tree some of which are bush burning and fires, logging and attacks from strange diseases.
Mahmoud Mohammed has stated that the Jirapa Business Resource Center is more than willing to be part of the effort in making the shea industry a viable one in the municipality especially if it involves people living with disabilities, woman and youth groups and has called for a general conversation around the issues preferably spearheaded by the municipal assembly.
