Shea nut tree and its ecological services has been an economic and social force across Africa for millennia. The impacts are felt from villages throughout the world. Karite Research Group (KRG) think tank objectives: to improve the value chain of the Shea nut tree and its ecological services to the world (visit our website www.aratishea.com/kariteresearch). The sub-units of Karite Research Group are:
- Shea Nut Tree Domestication
- Ecological Services
- Cosmetics & Manufacturing
- Conservation & Environment
- Business Development
- Nutrition /Nutraceutical
Our focus is multi-disciplinary, research-to-product (R2P) with diversification of funding sources using foundations, corporations, and individuals. We believe that this approach gives freedom in setting research agendas, a prime concern for KRG metamorphoses into ARATIShea Institute. Agenda setting within the KRG think tank is driven by research questions at the lowest level (researches play large role); knowledge building is the prime determinate in what research is chosen. We attempt to be ideologically neutral and perceive research as being for the benefit of humankind as a whole. The above sub-unit will require interested academics and professional to apply in order to collaborate and coordinates each unit with research agenda cum chose their team leader based on the person contribution to knowledge and development of the subject domain. Finally, findings will be published as ARATIShea Journal in English and French languages respectively.
Funding: Diversified funding (endowments, grants, organizations, private individuals, etc).
Agenda Setting: Researchers play large role.
Ideological : Attempt to be neutral source of ideas.
Research: Driven by Ideas; Long Term; Future Oriented; Purpose to supply social science expertise to policymakers; Strict adherence to research to application; Findings distributed in a manner that is to serve all of humanity.
RESEARCH SUB-UNIT: SHEA NUT TREE DOMESTICATION
PROJECT: SOIL FERTILITY AND THE SHEA NUT TREE DOMESTICATION
Lead Investigator:
Dr. Joshua A. Yidana,
Department of Horticulture,
University of Developmental Studies (UDS),
Box. 1882TL Tamale, Ghana.
Mobile Tel: +233268761087
joshua.yidana@aratishea.com; jyidana@gmail.com
Coordinator:
Ayodele A. Otaiku
Ph.D Student, Biogeography (Resource-effective Agriculture)
Department of Geography and Environmental Management
University of Port Harcourt, Choba,
River State – Nigeria.
Mobile Tel: +234 8033721219
ARATIShea Limited, Lagos. Nigeria.
ayodele.otaiku@aratishea.com; aotaiku@yahoo.com
Background
The Shea nut tree (Vitellaria paradoxa L.) is one the many economically valuable trees that growth naturally throughout the Sudanian region (Yidana, 2004) and see Figure 1. below. It occurs in 19 countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Cote D’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leon, Sudan, Togo, Uganda and Zaire (FAO, 1988). It is a tree species of high priority for African genetic resources. The fruit pulp can be eaten by both humans and animals. The butter that is extracted from the seed kernel contributes to traditional food security, and its important in the manufacturing of body care products, pharmaceutical and confectionery industries.
Figure 1. The shaded areas depict rainfall values. The small grey dots show areas of Shea trees (Vitellaria paradoxa) in West Africa. The white dots are a different variety of Shea trees in East Africa.
Journey so far
Researchers were conducted on the prospect for genetic improvement of Shea nut tree, its cultivation and domestication, and the ecological services. The phenotypic variations on the character of mature Shea nut trees have been used to categorize. The categorization is based on;
- Canopy shapes
- Fruits and nuts
- Foliar characters, and
- Fruiting season type and fall rhythm of fruits (Okoli et al., 2009).
Various methods have been employed in order to domesticate and improve the cultivation of Shea nut trees. Such methods include; the germination, growth and transplanting of Shea nut seedling and the vegetative propagation methods (that is, root of stem cuttings, layering and grafting). According to Yidana, (2004) noted that Shea nut trees in the wild often exhibit a cyclical yielding pattern that span over 3 to 5 years; and that attempt to domesticate the trees for cultivation have failed due to a long gestation period ( vegetative growth period) of 16 to 20 years before fruiting. These factors affect the yield and cultivation of Shea nut tree. The vegetative propagation methods have, especially the natural regeneration and grafting have contributed to faster growth and shortening the age for start of fruiting.
Justification
It is noteworthy that efforts have been channelled into the cultivation and domestication of Shea nut tree and factors such as length and quantity of rain, management practices and occurrence and severity of parasitic infection have been identify as having impact on the phases of development and reproduction (Okolo et al.,2009). However, little emphases have been made on the effect of soil fertility and nutrient requirement for the domestication and growth rate (Dianda et al., 2008). In their experiment, the Arbuscular mycorrhizae (AM) could not establish a symbiotic association with the Shea tree and as a result did not affect growth of seedlings. Also, maximum growth was improvement was achieved by applying N and P ratios of 1:3.2or 17.1:1. This experiment was limited because it basically excluded the use of K as fertilizer except the soil test showed that K was not limited in anyway. Moreover, only the AM fungus was tested.
This research (field application in Ghana) will be conducted to determine the effects of soil fertility and nutrient availability on;
- The growth rate of Shea nut tree seedlings and its vegetative propagated parts.
- The cyclical pattern of fruiting.
- The precocity and the lateness of fruit production, and
- The average yield per tree.
The materials for this project shall include among other things;
Four types of fertilizer brands (that is, two OBD-Biofertilizer and two ARATI Organo-Mineral Fertilizer (OMF) and good performing planting materials for seedling and vegetative propagation. The OBD-Biofertilizer to be used for this research is a consortium of microbes (OBD-Plus) instead of a single microbe and Organo-Mineral Fertilizer (OMF) which contains other nutrient apart from the NPK which is only common to conventional fertilizers.
References
FAO (1988). Traditional food plants. Food and Nutrition paper. 42:125-129. FAO, Rome.
Okolo, E.C. and Enaberue, L. (2009). The prospect for genetic improvement of Shea trees in Nigeria. Nigeria Institute for Ool Palm Research, Benin City, Nigeria.
Yidana, J.A.( 2004). Progress in developing technologies to domesticate the cultivation of Shea tree (Vitellaria paradoxa L.) in Ghana. Agricultural and Food Science Journal of Ghana. Vol. 3 249-267.
Dianda, M., Bayala, J., Diop, T., Ouédraogo , S. J. (2009). Improving growth of shea butter tree (Vitellaria paradoxa C.F.Gaertn.) seedlings using mineral N, P and arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi. Biotechnol. Agron. Soc. Environ.13 (1), 93-102.
Research Unit: Shea Nut Tree Domestication
Lead investigators: Dr. Joshua A. Yidana,
Department of Horticulture,
University of Developmental Studies (UDS),
Box. 1882TL Tamale, Ghana.
Mobile Tel: +233268761087
joshua.yidana@aratishea.com; jyidana@gmail.com
Prof. Charles U. Oyegun
Hydrologist/Geomorphologist
Department of Geography and Environmental Management
University of Port Harcourt, Choba,
Port Harcourt, River State, Nigeria.
Mobile Tel: + 2348033420259
charles.oyegun@aratishea.com ; charles.oyegun@uniport.edu.ng
Coordinator: Ayodele A. Otaiku
Ph.D student, Biogeography (Resource effective agriculture)
Department of Geography and Environmental Management
University of Port Harcourt, Choba,
River State – Nigeria.
Mobile Tel: +234 8033721219
ARATIShea Limited, Lagos State, Nigeria.
ayodele.otaiku@aratishea.com; aotaiku@yahoo.com
Members: Francis A. Chimsah
Department of Horticulture,
University of Developmental Studies (UDS),
Box. 1882TL Tamale, Ghana.
Mobile Tel: +233243147226
francis.chimsah@aratishea.com; chimsah2000@yahoo.com
Dr. Nyarko, George
Department of Horticulture,
University of Developmental Studies (UDS),
Box. 1882TL Tamale, Ghana.
Mobile Tel: + 233244601892
nyarko.george@aratishea.com; nyarko2ude@yahoo.com
Akpan Ubong, Soil fertility Specialist
ARATIBIOTECH Limited, Lagos State, Nigeria.
Mobile Tel: +234806139 8953
akpan.ubong@aratishea.com; u_bongakpan@yahoo.co.uk
Dr. Adeniyi A. Soretire, Soil Microbiologist /Agronomist
Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta,
Ogun State. Nigeria.
adeniyi.soretire@aratishea.com; soradeb@yahoo.com
Dr. Prince C. Mmom
Environmental Resources Planning & Management
Department of Geography and Environmental Management
University of Port Harcourt, Choba,
Port Harcourt, River State, Nigeria.
Mobile Tel: +2348033420259
prince.mmom@aratishea.com; pcmmom@yahoo.com
Paul Okiror
College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences,
Makerere University,
Kampala, Uganda.
Mobile Tel: +22509586545
paul.okiror@aratishea.com ; pokiror@forest.mak.ac.ug
Soro Dodiomon
Laboratory of Botany,
UFR Biosciences,
University of Cocody,
Abidjan, Cote D’ivoire.
soro.dodiomon@aratishea.com ; dodiomons@yahoo.fr
Mahamadi Dianda
Institute de l’Environement et de Recherches Agricoles (INERA),
Departement Productions forestieres,
BF-Ouagadougou 03,
Burkina Faso.
dmahamadi@yahoo.fr ; mahamadi.dianda@aratishea.com
