KAPELEBYONG, June 12, 2024 – In a bid to boost their household incomes, members of Adungo River Bank, Water and Environment Conservation Cooperative Society Limited have acquired and installed a shea nut oil processing machine in Obalanga Subcounty, Kapelebyong district.
The cooperative has about 20 members who are engaged in shea nut oil production and expect to make more money from their enterprise now that they have a machine of their own to process the shea oil and other products.
Michael Etiangu, Secretary of the cooperative, says the value addition machine will go a long way to help reduce household poverty and save shea trees from being cut down for charcoal burning.
“Many people have been cutting these particular trees for charcoal burning but now that this machine has been put in place, they will stop cutting trees and instead concentrate on shea oil production,” Etiangu says.
He says the Shs 15 million machine was bought for them by Ministry of Water and Environment in April this year.
Etiangu also says they buy shea nuts from the farmers at Shs 1,800 per kilo and have so far produced 150 litres of shea nut oil ready for use. A litre of Shea nut oil in the area goes for Shs 20,000.
However, he says the cooperative faces the challenge of stopping people from cutting the shea trees because most of them are privately owned, adding that unless the locals in the district realise the value of the trees, they will continue to cut them down for charcoal business.
“Maybe after people have realised that there are more profits in shea nuts production than charcoal burning, then they can stop cutting down shea trees,” he says.
On his part, John Peter Eceru, the District Agricultural Officer, Kapelebyong encouraged people to plant more shea trees instead of cutting the available ones.
He says that there is need to sensitise the communities about the golden trees so that they can preserve them “For the people to know the benefits of shea nut trees they also need to be sensitised,” he says.
He further advises that locals in Kapelebyong district should not only depend on Shea nut production, but also look alternative source of income to sustain their households.
Shea nuts products
Shea nuts products consist of solid fat (butter or stearin) and liquid oil [olien], which are great as raw materials for products including cooking oil, margarine, cosmetics, soap, detergents, and candles.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Water and Environment has been running a project in Obalanga Subcounty aimed at protecting the buffer zones along River Adungo the Enhancing of Resilience of Communities to Climate Change through catchment Based Intergrated Water Resources Management of Water and Related Resources Project [EURECCCA].
This project is funded by the Adaptation Fund through Sahara and Sahel Observatory with an overall goal of increasing the resilience of communities to the risk of floods and landslides.
Under this intervention, the project provides support to local communities to be able to demarcate and restore degraded wetlands and river banks using live markers and concrete pillars.
https://thecooperator.news/price-of-shea-nuts-shoots-up-in-northern-uganda/
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