- In northern Uganda’s Pader district, a women-led cooperative is leading efforts to replant shea trees, restore deforested land and improve local livelihoods through the processing and sale of shea products.
- The Pader Shea Nut and Agro-processing Society, which started with just six members in 2004, has grown to more than 1,400 members.
- Through agroforestry techniques and Indigenous knowledge, the group has restored more than 500 hectares (1,240 acres) of degraded land, planting shea and other native tree species.
- Their efforts face challenges from charcoal production, land grabbing and climate change, but the women remain determined to preserve their natural heritage for future generations.
PADER DISTRICT, Uganda — As the early morning mist lifts over the plains of northern Uganda, women gather at the Pader Shea Nut and Agro-processing Society’s nursery. Grown from seeds collected across the parkland landscape that dominates this district, hundreds of shea seedlings stand in neat, carefully tended rows under thatched shelters to protect them from the harsh sun that will soon burn through the morning’s mist. The women are here to collect seedlings to transplant into their fields.
As part of a larger effort to restore Uganda’s shea parklands, the cooperative has successfully rehabilitated more than 500 hectares (1,240 acres) of degraded land, integrating shea trees (Vitellaria paradoxa) and other native species with maize and sunflower crops.
The shea nut cooperative’s story began in 2004, during one of the darkest periods of Uganda’s modern history. “The group started with six members,” says Sarah Norah, one of the cooperative’s leaders. “By then we were in the [internally displaced people’s] camp. So life was not easy. We were being given food by the United Nations besides cooking oil and corn flour. And sometimes we could run out of those things.”
Shea parklands
The fruit of the shea tree has long formed a key part of food systems in northern Uganda. A mature tree produces 15-20 kilograms (33-44 pounds) of green, egg-shaped fruit, measuring 5-8 centimeters (2-3 inches) that ripen between April and June; the tart flesh can be eaten raw and the large brown seeds are processed to produce a nutritious, energy-rich butter, as well as soap, medicine and cosmetics.
In the collective’s early days, accessing shea trees meant venturing out of the IDP camp into dangerous territory. The shea nut belt was a hotspot for notorious rebel leader Joseph Kony and his Lord’s Resistance Army. They often ransacked evacuated villages for food and other supplies with little care for shea trees or their caretakers. For locals, moving through the area alone meant risking death.
“We could not go alone,” Norah says. “We went to the barracks where we contacted the army commander who agreed to send some army people to escort us in the bush, and we collected the nuts. It was not easy without the army.”
The women’s determination to maintain access to shea resources, even during conflict, highlights the tree’s crucial role. Shea parklands are carefully managed agricultural landscapes that communities have shaped over centuries. According to research published by the Global Shea Alliance, farmers of shea landscapes have historically maintained agroforestry systems by carefully protecting and pruning shea and other trees in their fields, and allowing them to regenerate naturally on land left fallow. Across Africa’s dryland belt that runs from Senegal in the west to Uganda and Ethiopia in the east, this has created productive landscapes that balance crop production with ecological preservation.
The Pader society’s efforts to protect and restore shea parklands became an important part of post-conflict recovery and economic rebuilding in the region. From modest beginnings, the cooperative has grown to include more than 1,400 members.
Maureen Otika Lanyero, a member of the collective, says it has adopted a range of initiatives including tree-planting and economic development programs to empower a diverse range of women. “Our cooperative is unique because our project is for people, whereby even the young ones are people, the old ones are people, even the disabled people are also people where we don’t say this is for young ones, this is for old people. We join our hands together to fight poverty.”
Its nursery operations showcase technical expertise developed through training by the Lutheran World Federation. “After collecting from the bush, we come and wash [the seeds]. After washing, we take them to the bed for some three weeks,” Lanyero says, describing the propagation process. “When they start germinating, then we transplant them into the pot. Then we wait for some three weeks again. When the leaves are already there, then we transplant to the garden.”
The women’s expert propagation has improved seedling survival rates and helped the cooperative maintain a steady supply of new seedlings for restoration efforts.
“What we are planning, we shall not wait for all those long years,” Lanyero says, pointing to a juvenile tree. “We are going to graft it when it reaches some stages like this. The grafting makes it produce after 15 years,” nearly a decade faster than traditional growth cycles.
Challenges
However, the restoration of Pader’s shea parklands faces significant challenges. Deforestation linked to charcoal production continues to threaten existing trees.
Charcoal burning is now a big problem because there are other people who cut down every tree without leaving even the young ones,” Norah explains. “At least for other some people, they cut down [only] the old ones, but other people don’t want to leave even a single shea tree, which is really bringing a lot of problems.”
Local authorities have implemented protective measures. Oryem Denish, a member of the co-op, explains: “The clan leader here has made a local law to protect the shea nut tree. Because nowadays, it’s the shea nut that is the key … When they catch you felling a shea tree, you are supposed to pay one bull and one goat.”
The cooperative has begun to diversify its activities to strengthen members’ economic resilience. “Apart from the shea nut, we do the village savings. We save [together] and the members borrow. They repay it with 10%,” Lanyero says.
“We also have group farming. We select the seed. We can plant for the group [with crops like] shea, soya and sunflower.” Walking through her own sunflower and maize gardens, she predicts a good yield this season.
Despite the training and exposure to regional markets, the cooperative continues to face difficulties in accessing larger commercial markets for its shea nut products. The challenge lies not in production capacity or quality, but in establishing reliable connections to buyers who can handle larger volumes.
“The problem is we don’t have any ready market,” Norah says. “Sometimes we sell it locally. Sometimes people order for a small, small scale, but not mass scale.”
But, she says, the cooperative remains ambitious. “Our hope is to achieve more income for our people and to make our group viable where generation to generation can benefit from it.”
Through their persistence, these women are attempting to restore more than just shea trees: they’re working to rebuild a sustainable future for their community.
Banner image: Pan-fried shea nuts. Image by Pat Robert Larubi for Mongabay.
Shea’s silent guardians restore Uganda’s traditional parklands
Citation:
Nasare, L. I., Stout, J., Lovett, P., & Kwapong, P. K. (2022). Determinants of shea (Vitellaria paradoxa C.F. Gaertn.) fruit yield: A review of research approaches and current knowledge. Scientific African, 17, e01371. doi:10.1016/j.sciaf.2022.e01371
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