Amid climate change in the Horn of Africa, camels pose an opportunity

GARISSA, Kenya — In the dusty village of Modika, in eastern Kenya, Leila Abdullahi spends her days trading what is increasingly known as the “white gold” of the desert: camel milk. For the past five years, she has sold it out of recycled plastic water bottles and yellow jerry cans to fellow villagers and motorists. Occasionally she supplies it to the booming hotel industry throughout the surrounding county of Garissa. Abdullahi is among some 540,000 pastoralists in Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia who are part of a regional program to create more sustainable and climate-resilient livelihoods through stronger livestock markets. The 13.7 million Swiss franc (about $15.9 million) initiative, funded by the Swiss government and implemented by Mercy Corps, also aims to economically empower local women: They comprise half of the participants. Abdullahi is also part of a broader shift underway in this drought-prone region where pastoralists have long relied on cows for their livelihoods and diets. Years’ worth of failed rainy seasons have killed entire herds as water sources dried up and left pastures desiccated so that cows had nothing to eat or drink. Camels, on the other hand, are better adapted to a hotter, drier climate and can produce more milk. Lately, local people and international funders alike see them as an opportunity and potential saving grace. By Abdullahi’s estimation, business was good given that she could sell about 70 liters of camel milk in a day, or some 9,100 Kenyan shilling ($70.54), with a profit of 2,100 Kenyan shilling ($16.28). “I get my supplies from camel farmers. After selling I budget the returns to pay school fees, medical bills and buy food for the family. Yesterday I managed to sell 80 liters of milk,” the 35-year-old mother of seven said earlier this summer. Abdullahi is an aggregator, or someone who buys raw produce from farmers and then connects the product to the next point of contact in the food value chain — in her case, the urban consumer. The program supports women in accessing markets beyond their villages and trains them in management and accounting skills. Its broader goal is to connect livestock producers in the arid and semiarid regions to markets for meat and dairy products. Women are gaining market control of the local camel milk trade. It’s a big win for them, Abdullahi says, in a society where women are traditionally meant to be housewives. For generations, men have been entrusted with livestock keeping due to the arduous and sometimes dangerous task of herding the animals in distant grazing sites. The less risky business of distributing the milk for domestic use or sale is seen as more of a woman’s job. “The camel milk value chain is an economy on its own, which we aim to improve to generate other financial benefits for women traders like access to loans, insurance, and skills on record keeping,” said Ahmednoor Abdullahi, Mercy Corps’ Garissa program coordinator. There are also plans to produce camel milk powder. The power of camels The Horn of Africa is the world’s largest source of camel milk and meat, and it is home to 60% of the global camel population, according to Dr. Ameha Sebsibe, the head of livestock at the Centre for Pastoral Areas and Livestock Development within the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, or IGAD. The organization is a partner on the regional livestock program of which Leila Abdullahi is part. Regional camel exports represent an annual trade value of $365 million, and annual camel milk production from Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia combined is about 2.3 million metric tons. Kenya is the world’s largest camel milk producer. Camels have numerous advantages over cows and other livestock, according to Piers Simpkin, Mercy Corps’ senior global livestock adviser. Their milk can be a substitute for cows’ milk. Farmers can milk them several times per day and over a longer duration in a year. High-yielding camels can produce up to 10 liters per day, compared to about five liters daily for cows in pastoralist lands. Camels’ longer lactation period requires them to feed more for longer periods, even during prolonged dry spells. But fodder comes easy in the Horn of Africa because the arid vegetation that can withstand extreme drought is a menu that serves it well, Simpkin said. Camels can go up to two weeks without water, compared to just a few days for cows. They can also travel for very long distances. This adaptability has been achieved over millions of years of evolution, shaping the camel’s body shape, size, and resilience to climate variability. Where another animal would die of body water loss, a camel can raise its body temperature by six degrees Celsius to avoid sweating and withstand up to a 30% increase in dehydration that another animal can’t, Simpkin said. “The amount of water it drinks and how it recycles it in the body, the different sorts of plants it can eat, how its hair and skin are adapted to reflect heat and sunlight to reduce the body temperature, make the camel well adapted to climate extremes,” Simpkin said. Further, camels contribute lower greenhouse gas emissions than cows because they emit far less methane. It is these advantages that led the United Nations to declare 2024 the International Year of Camelids, the term for the family of animals that also includes alpacas, llamas, and vicuñas. They are prized as a source of milk, meat, and fiber worldwide, as well as their role in supporting the traditions and livelihoods of pastoralist communities — particularly in mountainous, arid, and semiarid lands. Camel milk contains nutritional advantages as well: It is rich in nutrients, while local communities in the Horn of Africa perceive it to be medicinal. Its chemical makeup also makes it easier for people who are lactose-intolerant to consume. “Camel milk is good for infants because it is very nutritious and is easy to digest. It is supposed to be one of the milks that is closest to human milk in terms of composition, though human mother’s milk is still the best,” Simpkin said. Finally, its sour byproduct is widely consumed in wedding ceremonies as a traditional celebration of cultural identity. Market opportunities and challenges At the USAID-funded Garissa livestock market, about two dozen women dressed in flowing colorful burkas sit beneath five-foot parasols planted on sandy ground as they sell their camel milk. Though demand is on the rise, business is not always steady lately: Halima Mohamed, a milk seller, blames inflation in Kenya for squeezing family incomes, forcing her regular customers to either buy the milk in smaller quantities or forgo it altogether. “People are not buying milk because the cost of living has increased. If I do not sell my milk, I make losses and so I have to cut regular meals for my family or borrow from relatives,” said the mother of seven. Still, tens of thousands of women like her are helping battle food insecurity in the region, which is home to about 160 million people. More than 40% are undernourished, while some 70 million live in areas prone to extreme food shortages. A few obstacles stand in the way of the camel’s market growth. The region is troubled by diseases that could jump species from animals to humans. Most of them respond to antibiotics, but research and investment that can help detect Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS, brucellosis, Rift Valley Fever, and the Camel Unknown Disease, or CUD, are inadequate, Sebsibe said. A partnership between IGAD, the International Livestock Research Institute, Mercy Corps, and the private sector is working out control measures for the diseases through cross-breeding and by accessing quality new drugs, said Simpkin. “We have good milking camels here but we don’t have the technology to speed up the process of breeding them. It would be good to have a center of excellence in the region where we could get the finances to carry out technical research into some of the disease-causing agents,” he said. Lack of trust by communities and corruption within the local administration are also delaying the livestock program’s implementation. But the hardest of all is the demands of international donors for local implementing partners to share the costs of project financing. “The donor funds are available, but the challenge will be getting the county or national government share in that project due to a lot of bureaucracy and corruption,” Ahmednoor Abdullahi said. Back at Modika village, Leila Abdullahi is looking forward to expanding her business by investing in a refrigeration system and seeking more camel milk from producers. An additional problem could be the local culture, which dictates that women cannot be fully in charge of the revenues they generate from milk sales as their husbands must lead the household budget. Nor can women own family property. “Women have many problems but they have many responsibilities in the family and society,” Leila Abdullahi said. “It is not easy for us but I am happy with the changes that are happening to empower us.”