i Parkia biglobosa - School of Forest Resources & Environmental ...

preparation for the next season’s crops (Figure 25). Fire is still used in this way;
however, the farmland is now repeatedly used, not allowed to lay fallow. In turn the soil
cannot regain certain nutrients or fertility from incorporating organic material, namely
nitrogen and sulphur when brush is burned away. Fires are deliberately set under
dawadawa trees to promote fruiting. The cumulative effect of these fires is that West
Africa, between the Sahara and the Gulf of Guinea has the highest proportion of annual
fire in the world (Pyne 1999).
Humans play an important role in the decline of natural regeneration of P.
biglobosa. The greatest impact is the intensive harvesting of the mature pods for
production of dawadawa. During March and April the local markets are flooded with
zuini (P. biglobosa seeds), dobulong (yellow starchy endocarp), and dooro (empty
husks). The women harvest the pods for home use, although the pods are sold to convert
this resource into much needed cash. March and April are months in the middle of dry
season, and the beginning of the “hunger season”. Most of the stored household grains
have been used and cash is necessary to purchase food. Women entrepreneurs, especially
from the larger towns of Bolgatanga and Navrongo, take advantage by buying up all the
products from the local markets with their cash assets. These women bring the seeds into
Bolgatanga or Navrongo and sell them at a profit, or sell the P. biglobosa seeds to buyers
for the industrial manufacturers, especially Royco (a Unilever Brothers subsidiary).
These enterprising women will also come back to the village markets later in the year and
sell seeds at a higher price to the local dawadawa producers who do not have access to
transportation. Consequently, the requirement for cash has directly depleted the soil’s
seed bank.
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