Effects of Different Treatments on Seed Germination and Improvement of <i>Vitellaria paradoxa</i>

Shea butter (Vitellaria paradoxa) tree is one of the most\r\nimportant tree species in Africa owing to its high potential in reduction of\r\npoverty and hunger in rural areas and enhancing environmental sustainability.\r\nAll parts of shea tree are important from bark to wood and from leaves to\r\nfruits. Despite all the uses and many more, shea is amongst the endangered\r\nspecies of trees because of over-utilization, low regeneration abilities and\r\nlack of efficient propagation methods. Consequently, this research seeks to\r\ndetermine the most efficient methods for propagating V. paradoxa. The experiment\r\nconsists of three\r\nstages. In the first stage, complete fruits were planted without depulping; in\r\nthe second experiment, the seeds were exposed to single seed treatments that were applied to the seeds and in the third experiment, the seeds were exposed to double seed treatments. It was observed that intact fruits did not germinate while the results showed the single seeds treatment to significantly have affected germination\r\nperformance. De-shelled seeds germinated faster (43 days) than all other treatments but 48 hours soaking produced the highest\r\ngermination percentage (91.7%). An\r\neven better result was recorded with double seeds treatments in which de-shelled plus 24 hours soaked\r\nseed germinated faster (39.3 days) than other treatments while sandpapered plus\r\n24 hours soaked seeds had the best germination percentage (75%). Therefore,\r\nscarification using sandpaper plus soaking for 24 hours was identified as the\r\nbest treatment for breaking seed dormancy in V. paradoxa.