As Global Warming Makes Crops Impossible, a Shift to Camels

As climate change alters the African landscape, making some parts of the continent unsuitable for agriculture, raising camels could supplant crops and other livestock in the hardest hit areas, a study from the International Livestock Research Institute suggests.

Environmental scientist Philip K. Thornton is serious about that recommendation.

In parts of the arid and semi-arid regions of West, East and southern Africa, increasingly inadequate rainfall already causes crops to fail one out of every six years – a rate that is increasing as global warming takes its toll.

By 2050, between 500,000 and 1 million square kilometers of Africa could fall below the crop threshold of 90 reliable of days of moisture, according to a series of computer models that take into account potential impacts from climate change.

Where impacts are most severe, switching from cropping to herding may be the only salvation.

Thornton’s research suggests that raising drought-hardy camels could be a viable option for some 20 million to 35 million people living in scattered areas about the size of Egypt that will likely become so arid by 2050 that raising food will be virtually impossible. It could also be more lucrative than people realize.

Camels, which have adapted to the desert over centuries, have unique biological functions which allow them to conserve water in blood, though not in their humps as most people suppose. The hump is actually a fat reservoir.

These animals can go five to seven days without drinking, and can tolerate water that is too brackish for cattle and other livestock. Camels can also get water from desert foliage that other animals can’t chew or digest, thanks to a robust mouth and three stomachs which allow even branches, hide and bones to be digested.

Once used strictly as pack animals, camels are already being rediscovered by nomadic African tribes like the Samburu for the value of their milk, meat and even their hair.

This value is represented not only in immediately available food – nomads can live for up to a month on nothing but camel’s milk – but in commerce, and it is this second aspect that offers the most hope for poor African farmers.

For example, in the Middle East, camel’s milk is a delicacy costing 20 riyals ($5) per gallon. In Africa, it sells for more than a dollar a liter. Shipped to the United States or the United Kingdom, it can cost up to $18 a gallon, when one can find it. In Tunisia, it costs a little more than £2 ($3.25) per liter. In Xinjiang, China, a cup of camel’s milk costs 15 yuan ($2.19).

Camel’s milk is also nourishing, high in vitamins (including vitamin C), and contains 10 times more iron than cow’s milk. Desert camel’s milk, which has only 2 percent fat by volume (as compared to an average 4.5 percent for cow’s milk), is used in the making of cheese, soap, and ice cream, and its use may soon extend to cosmetic creams and lotions. In the United Kingdom, both Harrods and Fortnum and Mason have expressed interest in the product. In Dubai, a company has even ventured into camel-milk chocolates.

The Emirates Industry for Camel Milk & Products (EICMP) estimates that the market for camel’s milk and milk products exceeds $200 million in the Arab world alone. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) agrees the potential market could be as much as $10 billion, and their dairy expert, Anthony Bennett, supports that contention by noting that milk – even milk from camels – is money.