Camel Farms to combat desertification - Arab Environment Watch

Talking about designing environmental innovations from indigenous creativity, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) has proposed setting up of camel farms to fight desertification in Qatar and the other Gulf countries. This is a novel idea that can be replicated, providing successful implementation in other Arab countries of arid environments, almost all of them actually!

This is the report published in Gulf Times last week

By: Arvind Nair

Desertification and degradation of deserts is a big environmental issue. Overgrazing by camels is found to be a major contributory factor in desertification of the region.
With overgrazing, palatable species disappear, vegetation cover is drastically reduced and thorny, poisonous and salty plants survive, explained Benno Boer, who, jointly with John Peacock, mooted the idea of camel farms.
The proposal was developed by Marc Breulmann, helped by an international team of experts consisting of Benno Boer, Ulrich Wernery, Renate Wernery, Hassan el Shaer, Ghaleb Alhadrami, David Gallacher, John Peacock, Shaukat Ali Chaudhary, Gary Brown and John Norton.
The proposal to combat desertification via the establishment of camel farms is based on fodder production from indigenous plants and halophytes, explained Boer, an ecologist and botanist, and programme specialist at the Unesco’s regional office in Qatar.
According to the document, desertification is currently taking place much faster world-wide than ever before. It usually arises from the demands of increasing populations that settle on the land in order to cultivate crops and graze livestock.
The major impact of desertification is loss of biodiversity, and loss of productive capacity.
A modern camel farm, which the Unesco office in Doha could help in developing, could fight desertification, Boer said.
“The number of camels in the Arabian Peninsula rangelands must be reduced and overgrazing must be stopped to allow the recovery of desert ecosystems. However the ability to recover for certain areas always depends on the soil and the degree of degradation that has taken place. The recovery is minimal if the degradation has been high.
Areas might not recover where the top soil has blown away”.
In hot environments camel farms had several advantages over cow farms, Boer said. Cow farms in the Arabian Peninsula require an air-conditioned environment for milk production. Cows can produce 25 litres of milk a day but only in an a/c environment. In natural conditions the milk production will be less than five litres.
Camels, which are indigenous to the Arabian Peninsula and adapted to the hot and dry desert conditions, can produce four times more milk a day, Boer pointed out. So, camels are far better suited than cattle and small ruminants for animal husbandry in desert areas.
Unlike sheep and goats, which clear the entire vegetation cover down to the soil surface, camels take only a few bites from shrubs or trees and then move on. “They are true browsers”.
The feasibility and success of this new sustainable livestock industry will require strict grazing laws as well as a sustainable system for fodder production. Governments are encouraged to allow livestock grazing on rangelands only when it is in tune with the ecological carrying capacity in order to restore the desert ecosystems.
Producing indigenous plants is a more sustainable way of fodder production because the amount of freshwater needed for irrigation can be significantly reduced when compared with Rhodes grass and alfalfa. Indigenous plants will also have less fertiliser and pesticide requirements which make them more environmentally friendly compared to conventional fodder.
The importation/production of forage crops such as alfalfa and Rhodes grass should be minimised as sources of camel fodder since they are poorly adapted to the conditions of drought, high temperatures and salinity of the desert soils. They also require high amounts of freshwater for irrigation.
Sustainable human development through the establishment of camel farms will also bring wider socio-economic benefits to the local region. Jobs will be generated in the farm and in the tourism and transport sectors. These camel farms will also provide saleable farm products such as camel milk, meat, hide and hair.
According to the experts, camel milk is healthy and has many advantages in comparison to cow milk. It has five times higher Vitamin C content, is rich in iron, contains less fat. It reduces cholesterol and is compatible among people who are lactose intolerant.
Marc Breulman, who developed the proposal, is an ecologist who took part in the UN internship programme at the Unesco office in Doha to develop this proposal.