98 The contribution of shea butter (Vitellaria paradoxa C.F. Gaertner) to local livelihoods in Beninharvested and others requiring weeding. Livestock are restricted to a few goats
or sheep per household and some cattle, kept by the Peulh.
Agriculture is the main income-earning activity for men of all ethnic groups.
Only a few men still hunt regularly, following a decline in game stocks. A growing
number of men supplement their farm income by collecting palm nuts or honey.
This is true particularly for young men and recent immigrants who do not yet
have land of their own to farm. They may also earn small amounts by transporting
goods on their bicycles, and the few who own bullock pairs rent out their animals
or use them to transport goods and people. A few immigrants from the south
earn money from tapping oil palms and distilling palm wine.
Women earn very little for the time spent working in their husbands’ fields.
An exception are the Otamari women, who control most of the vegetable harvest.
In other ethnic groups, unless women own their own fields (relatively uncommon
except for widows), agriculture is their least important income-earning activity.
Most important are various forms of food processing, petty trade, collection
and sale of fuelwood, and the gathering and processing of a range of NTFPs.Income from shea
The importance of shea income for women is recognised by all. It is often
considered a ‘gift from god’ enabling them to survive. Well over 90% of women
were involved in collecting nuts. Those that failed to collect were either too
ill or absent (travelling to visit family) during the harvest season. Some of the
latter immediately bought stocks of kernels on their return. Yet when averaged
over all households, the income from shea (including sale of kernels, sale of
butter and own consumption of butter) makes up only about 2.8% of total
household income. To understand the significance of even this income, for
women in particular, a brief description of household budgeting is required.
In the study area, as in much of West Africa, men and women have very
separate budgets. Men primarily earn money from the sale of their agricultural
produce and are responsible for providing the staple food (maize, cassava,
yam) and covering school fees and children’s medical costs. Women have two
types of income:- ‘Weekly’ income is derived from daily or weekly activities such as clean-
ing rice, preparing food for sale, processing shea butter or African lo-
cust-bean moutarde, collecting fuelwood for sale. The income is used
to cover daily expenditure on sauce ingredients, school lunch money,
soap, kerosene and grain milling, and ranges from about CFA450 to
CFA2,600 (US$1.6–9.4) per week depending on the woman’s ethnic group
and the size of her family. - Annual lump sums income is derived from activities such as the sale of
stocked produce (including shea kernels), seasonal sale of palm oil and
honey. This kind of income is essential for women to fund investments
both in consumptive activities (such as new clothes, school uniforms,
gifts at Christmas, pots and pans) and in productive activities (building a
storage hut, purchasing a goat, purchasing agricultural stocks for later
resale, etc.). Annual expenditure of this kind costs a minimum of
CFA10,000 (US$36) per year.
06SHEA.P65 98 22/12/2004, 11:04