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Shea tree species is vulnerable; the density is rapidly declining due to poor conservation. In spite of the need for its preservation, inadequate information on the returns to shea value chain activities and the limiting factors to shea tree conservation among shea value chain actors in the North-central, Nigeria remain worrisome. A three-stage sampling technique was used to draw 387 respondents in North-central Nigeria consisting of 200 and 187 shea value chain actors from Niger and Kwara States respectively. Descriptive statistics, budgeting techniques and Least Significant Difference (LSD) test were used for data analysis. The results revealed that shea butter producers and shea nut collectors produced an average of 126.44kg and 634.54kg of shea butter and dried shea nut per month, from 337.67kg and 1,264.79kg of shea resources respectively. Similarly, an average of 1,182.08kg of charcoal, 1,377.24kg of fuelwood and 248.25kg of mortar/pestle and hoe handle (MP&H) were produced from 2,703.88kg, 1,433.19kg and 1,101.23kg of inputs per month respectively. The average net returns realized were N29,607.61, N19,690.45 N22,061.31, N24,521.14 and N27,524.15 per month from shea butter production, shea nut collection, charcoal production, fuelwood gathering and MP&H making respectively. The returns from the value chain activities showed a significant difference among all the actors (p<0.05). The major constraints to shea tree conservation for more than 70% of the shea value chain actors were: scarcity of shea hybrids, long gestation period, low returns, threat from charcoal and fuelwood activities. Furthermore, all the activities in the shea value chain were profitable. And the production of charcoal, fuelwood, MP&H constitutes threats to shea tree conservation. The study recommends the provision of shea hybrid, enlightenment on shea tree conservation and enforcement of control mechanisms to check wastage.
I.D. et al. (Tue,) studied this question.