Dr Piers Simpkin is camel expert, an academic based in Kenya who has kept his own herd of 75+ camels and has 40 years of experience of camel husbandry, professionally he is an expert on hoof stock and livelihoods in arid lands. His dream opportunity came true when the Maharaja of Jodhpur, His Highness Bhapji GajSingh II, invited him to advise on how best to reverse the decline in camel numbers in Rajasthan, and comment on the draft camel policy under consideration. The brief also included discovering if high yielding milking camel breeds could be found in India’s Rajasthan camel herds, which could be a new source of income for Rajasthans’ camel keepers, whilst boosting income and yields for camel owners in Kenya and neighbouring Horn of Africa countries.
Kenya’s camel statistics proved much larger than India’s rather dated statistics although the human population of Kenya is just 67 million, it is estimated about 2 million people keep 4.7million camels. It is hard to verify the number of India’s camel owning people but it is thought to be between 200,000 and 500,000 people who keep less than quarter a million camels.
Dr Simpkin met renowned researchers, academics, local politicians and government officers, veterinarians, tribal leaders, philanthropists, camel breeders, camel cart operators, herdsmen, milkmen and dairy operators. He was specifically grateful for the immense contributions of Professor Dr. Sumant Vyas, Vice-Chancellor of the Agricultural University of Rajasthan and formerly director the National Research Centre on Camels in Bikaner; and activist story-teller Hanant Singh Rathore and author researcher founder Dr. Ilse Kohler-Rollefson of Camel Charisma.
Data provided by the government to UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and all available information indicate the camel population in Rajasthan has declined since the 1970s, with a more rapid drop since 1992. In the 1990’s, India as a whole had over 1 million camels, but Bikaner National Camel Research Centre (NRCC) estimate an 80% decline in camels nationally over the last two decades. Figures from the past national census provided in the FAO Draft Policy paper show that between 1992 and 2019, the population of camels in Rajasthan alone declined by 71%.
India and Kenya share many common management practices, challenges and opportunities. Dr Simpkin found that if Kenya is not careful, and learns early from the India/Rajasthan experience, Kenya too could fall into the same situation as India.
India has already implemented many interventions to help camel owners over the years, including free disease treatments, extensive camel husbandry and management training; grants as incentives for every camel calf that survives over 2 years; subsidized camel insurance premiums; even an Act to ban the export across state borders, and the sale and slaughter of camels which had an unexpected negative impact as it further took away a main source of income for camel keepers.
In both countries the Arabian or dromedary camels are free-ranging and dependent on access to common grazing lands. Neither has any history of commercialization of camel products – traditionally milk was mostly used for home consumption or gifting to travellers and neighbours. Only recently has milk marketing become a major income flow in Kenya. The common challenge is that camel milk producers are spread thinly across wide areas, and customers are few and in distant cities – making milk marketing expensive, herein lies both the challenge and opportunity.
In both countries, camel keeping communities are loathe to sell female camels, but income is earned from selling males. In Kenya male camels are sold for meat; in Rajasthan they are sold for cart pulling and transport.
Camel keeping is still a strong cultural identity for the Raika/Dewasis, and smallholders or individual families keeping camels in both Rajasthan and Kenya; the camel is resilient, able to survive drought better than most other species, is less prone to common livestock diseases, and has multiple uses, wool products, useful for ploughing and pulling a cart. Unfortunately, the camel has become a victim of rapid agricultural mechanization and industrialization.
The commercial challenges are many: the slow reproductive rate is not competitive with goats and chickens as a protein source and not nearly as profitable. Competition for sufficient and available grazing land with the appropriate forage versus land needed for local farming initiatives, including green energy areas. Access to and awareness of veterinary and animal health services mainly for mange and trypanosomiasis. Religious and cultural traditions and inhibitions against selling camel milk, consuming camel milk, and slaughtering camels.
Despite India’s massive human population, outside of the Dewasi/Raika community, there is a lack of knowledge about the benefits of camel milk, which means there is a low demand for nutritious camel milk within India.
Recent demographic change, generational shifts in career interests and urban migration have reduced interest in keeping camels from both an economic and lifestyle perspective; but in the future will also offer a new opportunity for camel milk marketing.
Dr Simpkin has put forward several recommendations to HH Bhapji GajSingh II, it is not so much what is done, but how it is done that will determine the success or failure. India has the knowledge, the skills and technology, to teach the world including the Middle East and Africa, the best outcomes for human and camel welfare, nutrition and health.
