Eco Restore trains staff, 40 women on shea grafting

Eco Restore, a Ghanaian landscape restoration firm, together with in-country expertise, has trained staff and 40 women working in their nurseries on shea grafting.

This is aimed at shortening the gestation period, the time taken to fruit, of planted shea trees.

This grafting work formed part of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) funded Ghana Shea Landscape Emission Reductions Project (GSLERP), implemented by the Forestry Commission of Ghana (FC) and the Global Shea Alliance (GSA) and the USAID funded Shea Sustainability Initiative (SSI), implemented by the GSA.

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) is the GCF Accredited Entity overseeing management of the project. GSLERP seeks to enhance forest carbon stocks across Ghana's Northern Savanna Zone, by addressing the alarming deforestation and forest degradation challenges across the zone whilst promoting investment in the shea value chain and women empowerment. These trainings were implemented by Eco Restore Ltd. in collaboration with their private sector partner Bunge and the women’s cooperatives they source shea from.

A week-long training was held in Walewale where participants were taken through the grafting process, from root stock selection, identifying & harvesting of good scions, transport & care for scions, grafting of seedlings and seedling care after grafting.

Adam Osman Wumbei, Operations Manager of Eco Restore, speaking during the training, said the training does not just end in Walewale but will continue in communities where Eco Restore is working in, to make sure cooperatives under the GSLERP project are trained to champion grafting activities in their respective communities.

He said other methods of shea propagation will be considered in coming years to continue reducing the gestation of on-farm planted shea trees, whilst building capacity of staff and tree farmers, especially women who are more involved in the shea value chain.

Salifu Aminatu, Tibora cooperative lead and a nursery worker, Nakpaya said “We are happy with this training, it will help us get a lot of shea since our trees will take shorter period to fruit. The demand for shea is now high and we need more shea to pick.”

Source: Eco Restore