ASSESSMENT OF INDIGENOUS METHODS OF PROCESSING SHEA BUTTER AMONG WOMEN IN ILORIN EAST LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF KWARA STATE , NIGERIA

This study assessed the indigenous methods of processing shea butter among women in Ilorin East Local Government Area of Kwara State, Nigeria. The study made use of well-structured questionnaire to collect data from 180 respondents by means of four-stage random sampling technique. Analytical tools used include frequency, percentage and Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient. Findings showed that the majority of respondents had no formal education (73.3%), were middle aged (52.2%), and married (81.1%). The indigenous processing techniques commonly used by the respondents include: picking/harvesting of fruits, washing of fruits, de-pulping, drying, seed selection, seed cracking, roasting of kernels, milling of kernels, boiling of ground kernels, kneading, mixing, filtration, solidification and packaging. The majority (75%) of sources for information on indigenous shea butter processing came from family members. Factors limiting the majority of respondents were: inadequate water supply (95%), inadequate processing equipment (86.1%) and inadequate credit facilities (81.7%). Correlation analysis results revealed that age (-0.153, p<0.05) and the years of experience (-0.270, p<0.01) of respondents showed a significant relationship with the indigenous techniques of processing shea butter. It was concluded that indigenous methods of processing shea butter are widespread among respondents, knowledge is acquired through family members and that they are faced with several challenges. Among others, the study recommends the need for extension agents to be posted to rural areas to educate rural women and build on their indigenous knowledge of processing shea butter in order to produce high quality butter.


Introduction
Shea butter is an oil extract from the kernel of the shea nut produce of the shea tree.The shea butter tree (Vitellaria paradoxa, syn.Butyrospermum parkii, B. paradoxa) is indigenous to the African continent and Sub-Saharan Africa and belongs to the family Sapotaceae.The shea tree grows naturally in the southern regions of the Sahel and the northern regions of the Guinea zone.Global production thrives in West African countries of Mali, Burkina Faso, Benin, Senegal, Cote D´Ivoire, Ghana, Namibia and Nigeria.In Nigeria, the Hausas call it 'mankade', the Ibos call it Okwuma and the Yorubas call it Igi-emi (Daniel et al., 2005).The indigenous methods of processing shea butter are a critical safety value that has being created and developed out of necessity.According to Ibnouf (2008), indigenous methods of food processing are used in agricultural operations as well as in solving food shortage, therefore indigenous methods of processing of shea butter represent a valuable cultural capital and a concrete resource most women depend on.
All around the world, rural women have quite sophisticated indigenous methods of food processing and preservations which are recognized to be more sustainable.Rural women are known to possess indigenous cultural practices which help to maintain household food security particularly in terms of drought and famine as well as to provide a reserve for extended period of economic hardship.Rural women in Nigeria utilize indigenous methods of food processing and preservation because they are cheaper compared to modern techniques.Rural women usually use a diversity of simple and traditional food processing techniques to make a variety of traditional food products.These processing techniques help in preventing growth of the microorganisms that cause foods to decay.
Women have traditionally played a significant role in the extraction of shea butter, right from the stage of collection of shea nuts to final processing into shea butter.The indigenous methods of food processing and preservation enable people in the rural areas to survive under stressful conditions.This collective knowledge is critical to the survival and future well-being of local communities and especially of indigenous people as they try to maintain their livelihoods under difficult environmental conditions (Parrotta and Agnoletti, 2007).
The shea tree is treasured for its dietary value of the cooking oil and fruit pulp.Bark, roots and leaves are used in traditional medicines (Issahaku et al., 2012).Shea butter is naturally rich in vitamins A, E, and F (Okullo et al., 2010).Shea butter is widely utilized for domestic purposes such as cooking, skin moisturizer and commercially as an ingredient in cosmetic, pharmaceutical and edible products (Alander, 2004).
Indigenous knowledge systems are at risk of becoming extinct because of rapidly changing natural environments and fast growing of technologies on a global scale.Adesiji et al. (2009) stated that many practices disappear only because of the intrusion of foreign technologies or development concepts that promise short-term gains or solutions to problems without being capable of sustaining them.Shea butter is mostly processed manually by women in small villages in Nigeria (Ademola et al., 2012).Because of values and affordability of shea butter as vegetable fat in shea producing areas and beyond, to adapt to the requirements of the local conditions and allow survival of the people in the rural areas, this research work will therefore shed light on the assessment of indigenous methods of processing shea butter among women in Ilorin East Local Government Area of Kwara State as this will promote the cultural dimension of rural development.
The general objective is to assess the indigenous methods of processing shea butter among women in Ilorin East Local Government Area of Kwara State.The specific objectives are to: (1) assess the selected personal characteristics of shea butter processors in Ilorin East Local Government Area, (2) examine the shea butter processing techniques used in the study area, (3) identify the information sources of shea butter processors in the study area, (4) examine the marketing outlet that the shea butter processors employ in the study area, and (5) identify the constraints limiting shea butter processing in the study area.
Hypotheses of the study were the following: H1.There is no significant relationship between some selected personal characteristics of the shea butter processors and the processing techniques of shea butter.
H2.There is no significant relationship between some selected personal characteristics of the shea butter processors and the information sources of shea butter processors.
H3.There is no significant relationship between the constraints of processing shea butter and the marketing outlets employed by the shea butter processors.

Material and Methods
This study was carried out in Ilorin East Local Government of Kwara State.This is one of the sixteen local government areas in Kwara State.It was created in 1991 under the administration of retired general Ibrahim Babangida.The local government has land area of about 486 km 2 and a population of 204,310 in the 2006 population census.Ilorin East Local Government Area of Kwara State has its headquarters in the town of Oke Oyi.The local government consists of two districts, including: Iponrin and Gambari and twelve (12) political wards, comprising: Apado, Agbeyangi/gbadamuOsin, Gambari ward I, Ibagun ward I, Ibagun ward II, Iponrin, Magaji Aare ward I, Magaji Aare ward II, Marafa/Pepele, Maya/Ile Apa, OkeOyi /Alalubosa and Sango ward.
The study population includes all the women that are engaged in the processing of shea butter in the selected four villages of Ilorin East Local Government Area.Three-stage random sampling techniques were used in the selection of respondents for this study.The first stage was a random selection of four wards, namely: Apado, Ipinrim, Marafinlpepele and Alalubosa.Secondly, four villages (Famole-Olohunsogo, Ajelende, Kure-Oja, and Ariyibi) were selected from wards respectively.Thirdly, 45 women, shea butter processors, were randomly selected from each of the four villages.A total of 180 respondents were sampled in the study area.
Data for the study was obtained from both primary and secondary sources.The primary data was collected with the use of a well-structured questionnaire while the secondary data was collected from published and unpublished documents of Kwara State Agricultural Development Project, agricultural journals, internet and past studies.
The data collected was analysed using descriptive statistics such as frequency counts and percentage to achieve objectives 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.However, Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient was used for hypotheses 1, 2 and 3.

Results and Discussion
Data in Table 1 shows that 52.2% of the processors are aged between 41 and 55 years, implying that middle aged women dominate in shea butter processing in the study area.Age is a crucial factor in agricultural production, as young, active and virile farmers are expected to be more productive than old farmers.Most (81.1%) of the processors are married indicating that they have responsibilities of their households to meet.The predominance of married processors in the study area suggests that they are deriving some form of labour support from family members.
Results in Table 1 also show that the majority (78.3%) of respondents have no formal education.These findings are similar to those of Matanmi et al. (2011), who reported higher percentage of no formal education among shea butter women processors.
The majority (83.3%) of respondents indicated shea butter processing as their primary occupation.This shows the level of devotion to the vocation and practice of indigenous knowledge in the area.This finding is similar to that of Adesiji and Komolafe (2013), who report that higher percentages of farmers despite the religion still do traditional practices in Kwara State.About 35.5% of respondents had more than fifteen years of experience in shea butter processing and the majority (66.7%) had contact with extension agents.Furthermore, the majority of the respondents are Muslim.The processing techniques in Table 2 are the ones found in practice in the study area.The majority (65%) of the respondents harvest or pick the shea fruits themselves while fewer of them buy the fruits in the market.This implies that little division of labour was employed.The hygiene practices in the processing of shea butter were high, as the processors have high rate of hygienic attitude, with 97.2% of them washing the fruits before eating or de-pulping and 58.3% of them selecting the good seeds from the bad or spoilt ones.
Data in Table 2 reveals that all the respondents de-pulp, dry and crack the shea seed before milling.The majority of the respondents (77.2%) roast their shea butter kernels.All the respondents milled their dried, cracked and roasted shea kernels.The majority of the respondents (94.4% and 87.8% respectively) claimed that they boiled their milled shea kernels and also kneaded them into dough.Furthermore, results in Table 2 show that all the respondents mix, filtrate and solidify their shea butter.Lastly, the minority of respondents packaged their processed shea butter before marketing.This shows the tedious nature of shea butter processing (Carette et al., 2009).
From Table 3, it can be seen that 97.2% of the respondents claimed that they have access to information, whereas 2.8% of the respondents have no access.The majority (75%) of the respondents obtained information on the processing of shea butter from their descendants (families), 16.7% of the respondents obtained information from extension agents, 5.6% from radio, 2.2% from television and 0.6% from newspapers.The results show that shea butter processors place more importance on information from their descendants as a major resource in improving both their processing techniques and productivity.According to Grenier (1998), indigenous knowledge practices are developed through ages and passed down through generations and they become entrenched in people's culture.This implies that information from descendants (families) plays a critical role in the indigenous techniques of processing shea butter.4 shows that the majority of the respondents (50% and 53.9% respectively) market their shea butter to wholesalers and retailers once a week or twice a week.The majority of the respondents (71.1%) market their shea butter once a month to companies.This means that respondents produce shea in large quantity for commercial purposes and thereby it constitutes their source of livelihood.This finding is against the report by Hayes and Lence ( 2004) that there is little sensitization of the public and industries of the usefulness of shea butter or doubt in its quality.

Data in Table
Limited supply of nuts and inadequate processing equipment were claimed as severe constraints to shea butter production by respondents (Table 5).Shelf life of shea butter is not a severe constraint since processors do not have need for storage facilities because the majority of respondents sell their product once or twice daily/weekly to wholesalers, retailers and once a month to companies.Limited information is a severe constraint that limits the production of shea butter.Inadequate water supply was indicated as a very severe constraint on shea butter production.The reason may be that water is needed during indigenous process of washing of fruits, milling of kernels, boiling of ground kernel and mixing.The majority (81.7% and 86.1%) of respondents indicated inadequate credit facilities and inadequate processing equipment respectively as very severe constraints.A similar finding of the high cost of equipment and of a lack of access to credit has been reported by Issahaku et al. (2011) and Fakayode et al. (2013).Data in Table 6 reveals that age and the years of experience of the respondents show a significant relationship with the indigenous techniques of processing shea butter at 0.05 and 0.01 levels of significance, while the level of education has no significant relationship.This means that increase in age and years of experience in shea butter production will improve indigenous knowledge on shea butter processing technology among respondents.
The results of the analysis summarised in Table 7 show that age of the respondents and years of experience impact significantly on information sources.However, the level of education has no significant relationship with the source of information.This is due to a high level of illiteracy in the area.Data in Table 8 shows the results of correlation analysis of the constraints limiting shea butter production and the marketing outlets of shea butter reveal that only limited labour as one of the constraints is significantly related with the marketing outlets.This implies that labour is a crucial factor in the processing of shea butter and a shortage of labour will reduce the production of shea butter.

Conclusion
This study concludes that the shea butter processors are mainly females, middle aged, married, with no formal education, shea butter processing being their primary occupation, having little contact with extension agents and many years of experience on shea butter processing.
Regarding the processing techniques, the majority of the respondents pick or harvest shea fruits by themselves, and wash the shea kernels after picking.All the respondents de-pulp, sun-dry and crack the shea seed after washing.Mixing, filtration and solidification of shea butter were done by all the respondents.
As regards sources of information, the majority of the respondents got information from descendants (family) and the minority of them obtained information from extension agents.Based on the marketing outlets, it is also concluded that the majority of the respondents sell their shea butter to wholesalers twice a week, to retailers once a week, to consumers daily and to companies once a month.
Labour is a constraint limiting shea butter production as family labour could not be sufficiently used.Limited demand of shea butter, limited supply of nuts and inadequate transport facilities are also severe constraints on shea butter production.
Based on the findings of this study, this paper recommends that there is a need to educate rural women and also build on their indigenous knowledge of processing shea butter.More extension agents must be posted to rural areas to ensure proper dissemination of innovation.Marketing of shea butter to companies must also be improved by sensitizing them to the uses or importance of shea butter.

Table 2 .
Distribution of indigenous shea butter processing techniques.

Table 5 .
Distribution of constraints limiting indigenous processing of shea butter.

Table 6 .
Results of testing of hypothesis one.

Table 7 .
Results of testing of hypothesis two.Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).*Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).Source: Data analysis, 2013.