Small-scale farmers’ perceptions of the economic importance of Shea tree in Kuju sub-county, Amuria district

Abstract

The importance of shea nut tree to the people of Uganda has been overlooked considering both the economic and environmental uses of the tree and therefore efforts have to be made to propagate its production by the farmers as the shea nut tree production still remains low. It would be worthwhile to investigate farmers’ perception of shea nut tree as an economic tree among small scale farmers in Uganda. The specific research objectives were to (i) examine the farmers’ perceived economic importance of Shea nut tree to small scale farmers on Kuju Sub county (ii) analyze the major challenges faced by small-scale farmers and associated opportunities in the production of Vitellaria paradoxa (iii) assess the factors that influence farmers’ perception of Vitellaria paradoxa as an economic tree. Two parishes that had the highest number of shea nut farmers in Kobo sub-county were selected. A list of the households of all shea nut farmers in each of the parishes were obtained and a simple random sampling technique was used to select 40 farmers from each parish. In each household, the household head was interviewed, in his/her absence or upon his/her request, any other member who is knowledgeable about the household was interviewed. A structured interview schedule was used to collect data from the respondents. Descriptive statistics of means and percentages were used to describe the data while logit regression was used to determine socio-economic factors influencing farmers’ perception. Results showed that Shea nut and shea nut oil were reported by over 65% of the respondents as very important products from the shea nut tree; and by more than 50% to be increasing resource trends. The major challenges reported were limited access to extension services (69.2%) and not belong to functional local producer groups (57.5%). Respondent’s age, gender, marital status and whether the household was practicing agroforestry had significant effect (P ≤ 0.1) on farmers’ perception of Vitellaria paradoxa as an economic tree. In conclusion, farmers perceive Vitellaria paradoxa as an economic tree with a wide range of benefits; however, perception is influenced by other factors within the communities. As a recommendation, the government should support the Shea butter enterprise through skill enhancement program and formation of associations. In addition, farmer perceptions and attitudes should be considered with any initiatives to promote shea production in Uganda