215
© The Author(s) 2019
T. S. Rosenstock et al. (eds.), The Climate-Smart Agriculture Papers,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92798-5_18
Chapter 18
Shea Butter: A Pro-Poor, Pro-Female
Route to Increased Income
James Hammond, Mark van Wijk, Tim Pagella, Pietro Carpena,
Tom Skirrow, and Victoria Dauncey
18.1 Introduction
People suffering extreme poverty are typically the most vulnerable to system
shocks, including those caused by climate change (FAO 2016). Finding climatesmart interventions that help the most vulnerable people is difficult because those
people are typically less educated, have fewer resources to draw upon, and are less
able to tolerate risk and adopt new practices (Ahmed et al. 2007).
This chapter examines marginal smallholder farmers in the Sahel, in Eastern
Province, Northern Ghana, to explore whether shea butter production might offer a
climate-smart solution to help the most vulnerable. Shea trees are highly abundant
across the Sahel region. While the tree is culturally familiar and valued across the
dry lands of West Africa (Carpena et al. 2016) it has yet to be domesticated (Hall
et al. 1996). The fruits of the shea trees can be eaten, and the sun-dried kernels can
be boiled down to produce a vegetable fat known as shea butter, which is used in
both the food and cosmetics industries. The processing of the shea nut is laborious
and considered to be a lowly form of work, which means it is often undertaken by
women (who tend to be more vulnerable than men) and by poorer households. Shea
butter has been widely promoted as a rural development intervention, as it is a freely
accessible resource with a clear and reliable market value (Elias and Carney 2007;
Hatskevich et al. 2011; Pouliot and Elias 2013). The trees also serve as a defence
J. Hammond (*) · T. Pagella
World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), Nairobi, Kenya
School of Environment, Natural Resources and Geography, Bangor University, Bangor, UK
e-mail: J.Hammond@cgiar.org
M. van Wijk
International Livestock research Institute (ILRI), Nairobi, Kenya
P. Carpena · T. Skirrow · V. Dauncey
TREE AID, Bristol, UK
© The Author(s) 2019
T. S. Rosenstock et al. (eds.), The Climate-Smart Agriculture Papers,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92798-5_18
Chapter 18
Shea Butter: A Pro-Poor, Pro-Female
Route to Increased Income
James Hammond, Mark van Wijk, Tim Pagella, Pietro Carpena,
Tom Skirrow, and Victoria Dauncey
18.1 Introduction
People suffering extreme poverty are typically the most vulnerable to system
shocks, including those caused by climate change (FAO 2016). Finding climatesmart interventions that help the most vulnerable people is difficult because those
people are typically less educated, have fewer resources to draw upon, and are less
able to tolerate risk and adopt new practices (Ahmed et al. 2007).
This chapter examines marginal smallholder farmers in the Sahel, in Eastern
Province, Northern Ghana, to explore whether shea butter production might offer a
climate-smart solution to help the most vulnerable. Shea trees are highly abundant
across the Sahel region. While the tree is culturally familiar and valued across the
dry lands of West Africa (Carpena et al. 2016) it has yet to be domesticated (Hall
et al. 1996). The fruits of the shea trees can be eaten, and the sun-dried kernels can
be boiled down to produce a vegetable fat known as shea butter, which is used in
both the food and cosmetics industries. The processing of the shea nut is laborious
and considered to be a lowly form of work, which means it is often undertaken by
women (who tend to be more vulnerable than men) and by poorer households. Shea
butter has been widely promoted as a rural development intervention, as it is a freely
accessible resource with a clear and reliable market value (Elias and Carney 2007;
Hatskevich et al. 2011; Pouliot and Elias 2013). The trees also serve as a defence
J. Hammond (*) · T. Pagella
World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), Nairobi, Kenya
School of Environment, Natural Resources and Geography, Bangor University, Bangor, UK
e-mail: J.Hammond@cgiar.org
M. van Wijk
International Livestock research Institute (ILRI), Nairobi, Kenya
P. Carpena · T. Skirrow · V. Dauncey
TREE AID, Bristol, UK