From Charity Nwakaudu, Abuja
The Director General of the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC) Professor Hussain Doko Ibrahim, has called on all stakeholders to join hands together in the maximizing of Shea product in the nation to boost its economy value.
According to RMRDC helmsman who was represented by the Director, Industrial Extension Services Department Dr Bola Olugbemi, that with the potentials or inherent involved, the entirety of the product would be maximised. “We’ve been working so much on the quality of Shea in this country but unfortunately we yet to improve the genomics of the variability of the genetics of this important crop. We know it isn’t local news that mixing crop is a wild.”
The DG stated this during the GCCA Project Closing Workshop in Abuja, Friday.
“The quality of what you pick, determines the quality of the tree planted and most of these trees grow in the wild. Slot has been done working on this, to establish plantation where we can trap the quality of the seed planted. RMRDC has done a lot in terms of grading, the quality of which is important, that we have in this country and because we all know its importance in so many things, in this country. Like the cosmetics, medical, food industries respectively and so many other uses.”
But unfortunately, the RMRDC boss said, only the women are involved in the project. Adding that, at the last conference held, “the hall was filled with women but the men did the talking. Women, you need to work harder and take charge of the association. The men are the ones in charge but you’re the ones found on the field. So you need to come out from the field and be part and parcel of the management of this important project.
Professor Ibrahim urged the beneficiaries of the project, to put to work all knowledge they’ve been able to acquire in the cause of training in order to conserve the innovative knowledge acquired.
According to the MD Global Shea Alliance Aron Adu that, “recent issues on the increase of population and urbanization and other things have resulted in the fact that agriculture has taken a new form, where you have a lot of mono-cropping, on a large piece of land, and then apply a lot of fertilizer and then after the harvest you do the reaping and so that circle continues. But what we have identified is that, this type of agriculture is dangerous for the Shea packner because shea trees aren’t planted, they grow on their own and it takes about 25years before they begin to fruit even though there has been new researches of getting them to fruiting in about two and a half to three years through crafting. So what we seek to do is to protect the existence stalk of shea trees. By promoting inter-cropping within the tacklers, we promote trees on farms.”