General Overview of the Camel Sector in the Somali

Regional State of Ethiopia

By

Grum Gebreyesus&

Seid Mohammed Ali

Presented on the

Stakeholder Workshop To Develop A Strategy For The

Ethiopian Camel Sector

February 22-23/2012

Jigjiga, Ethiopia

Map of Somali Regional State of Ethiopia

• Map of SoRSE

Introduction

•The Somali Regional State of Ethiopia (SoRSE) is situated

in SEEthiopia

•Total population: 4,439,147 , 85% are pastoralists

•SoRSEaccounts for about 50% of the total dry areas in

Ethiopia (FAO, 1998: EARO, 2000)

•Prone to rainfall variability, extreme drought and floods

•Dry-land areas can best be utilized through extensive

pastoral systems

Introduction-------

• Unpredictably variable environment -Somali pastoralists’

resilience strategy of heavily depending on the more drought-

resistantCAMEL

• Camels have efficient behavioural, anatomical and physiological

adaption mechanisms

• The camel “animal of food security” survive and produce in

drought prone areas where other animals hardly survive

Introduction-------

• Camels provide milk, meat transport, cash---

• Camel plays vital role in food security and

socio-cultural functions

• However, the sector is underutilized

• Holistic interventions are needed to make use

of the huge camel resource in the SoRSE

Objectives

• To present the current status and constraints of

the camel sector in SoRSE

• To indicate the status and major gaps within the

education component pertaining to camel sector

in SoRSE

The Status of Camel Sector in SoRSE�Camel Population of SoRSE

� Information on camel population is scarce

� Available data are contradictory

Inconsistency of camel population dataNo

Camel Population Source

1 2.9 million in SoRSE (IOSRS, 2002)

2 In Ethiopia, the only species of farm AnGR reported as increasing is the camel

(IBC, 2004)

3 Camel population of five regions, was 0.44 million; 145,073 in SoRSE

(CSA, 2005/2006)

4 2.4 million in Ethiopia (FAO, 2010)

Status of Camel Sector------

�Significance of Camel to Somali Pastoralists

Eyassu (2009)

Major Contribution Rank

Milk Production (staple diet + sale) 1st

Transport (Mobility) 2nd

Meat Production 3rd

Income from sale of camels 4th

Indemnity 5th

Status of Camel Sector-----

� For the Somali pastoralists, the camel also has social and cultural

values

Camel ownership pattern

� Babile: pastoralists have 1-150 camels (average-=14)

� Kebribeyah: 1-112 camels (average=20)

Productivity and Production Status:

– Reproduction,

– Milk

– Meat

Reproduction

• Mean age at first mating: Mehari et al., (2007)

– Male: 5.8 years

– Female: 4.9-5.0 years

• Gestation Period: 355 -389 days –ILCA(1981)

• Average birth weight: 35-40 kilograms

• Parturition Intervals: 19 mos (12-22 ) Kebebew(1998)

• Total Lifetime Production: 8-10/25-30 yrs (Farah, 204)

Milk Production

Average daily yield (liters)

Lactation length (months)

Lactation yield (liters)

Source

3- 5 15 to 18 1,244- 2,009 Tezera (1998)

7.5±0.5 282±10 days 2104±97 Baars & Kebebew(2005)

3- 6 15 - 18 1,500-2,500 Schwartz &Walsh(1992)

3.58-5.73 12 1,500-2,500 Mehari et al (2007)

Camel Meat� Live weights:

Mehari et al. (2007): Male: 407-435 kg & Female: 377- 401kg

Tezera (1998): male: 384 -486 & female: 326- 427 kg

DP: 54.03±5.13 (M) and 50.65±3.70 (F) Kurtu (2004)

• Meat production potential:

– Babilie: 230.02 - 240.28 kg (M) and 187.74 - 195.14 kg (F)

– Kebribeyah: 214.77 - 225.03 kg (M) and 199.76 - 207.16 kg (F)

• Higher AA and mineral contents and medicinal valuefor treating fracture,

asthmatics, HIV, tuberculosis, and gastritis

Camel Production Constraints

Camel production constraints

� Drought; Feed and water shortage

� Disease

� Marketing problems

� Absence of genetic interventions

� Poor social services

� Lack of national/regional camel development strategy

Constraints in the milk market chain

• Very low milk yield

• Poor milk quality and hygiene

• Poor support

• Lack of marketing facilities

• Unreliable milk market

• Weak linkages between RET users

• Inadequate extension and training

Major Camel Diseases in SoRSE

• Trypanosomiasis

• Camel Pox

• Mastitis

• Internal parasites

• External Parasites

– Mange mites

– Ticks

– Flies

Status and Gaps in Camel Education Sector in

SoRSE

• The history of agricultural higher education in SoRSE dates back

to 1999 with the establishment of Gode ATVET

• Gode ATVET has diploma level programs in Animal Sciences,

Plant Sciences and Natural resources

• Agricultural higher education in the SRS was further strengthened

by the establishment of Jigjiga University in 2007

• JJU has launched degree and DVMprograms in Animal and

Range Sciences and Veterinary Medicine in 2008/09

Status and Gaps in Camel Education ….

• Apart from the regular program, JJUlaunched Animal

and Range Sciences in its CEP programat Jigjiga center

and Diploma and Degree programs in in its distance

education centers at Jigjiga, Gode and Filtu

• The department of Animal and Range Sciences has so

far graduated 100 graduates in 2 regular batches and 40

graduates in a CEP batch

• The FVM will have its first graduates in 2012

Status and Gaps in Camel Education ….

Courses addressing camel topics in JJU

Related courses: Rangeland Management

Program Courses with Camel Topics Credit hour

Animal and Range

Sciences

Camel Production 3

Rangeland Management 3

Range Ecology 3

Veterinary Medicine Camel Health and Production 3

Status and Gaps in Camel Education ….

• Despite the significance of the camel sector to

the regional livelihood system, no exclusive

programis launched in either Jigjiga University

or Gode ATVETCollege

• The number of courses included in the curricula

that address camel topics are limited

Other Limitations

�Relevance of Course content

� Veterinary and animal science trainings in most Ethiopian

Universities are modeled on the curricula of the developed world

� Most topics covered in the camel production course content are

adapted fromintensive production systems of the Gulf States with

little relevance to the extensive pastoral production systems

� The indigenous knowledge of pastoralists in camel production is

not incorporated and mainstreamed in the curricula

Other Limitations----

�Human capacity and teaching materials

• No MSc and PhDprograms in Ethiopian Universities

• Most instructors do not have practical exposure to pastoral

camel production systems

• Reference books in camel production are literally absent in

the respective libraries of all Ethiopian public Universities

Other Limitations----

• Limited budget for practical aspects of the courses

�Lack of Institutional linkage with research and

development sectors

• Courses delivered are not supplemented with on-

farm/on-station findings of research or current state of

the sector development in Ethiopian/Somali region

context

Summary

• In SoRSEthe camel is a multipurpose animal providing

milk, meat and transport power in addition to social and

cultural functions

• Due to various constraints the sector is not utilized to the

potential –drought, disease, market problems, poor social

services and lack of camel development strategy are

responsible for the underutilization in the sector

Summary-----

• Inadequacies exist in the current regional camel topics

teaching institutions

• Holistic and integrated interventions need to be in place-

range development, disease control, market development,

enhancing social services, etc

• Regional /national camel development strategy should be

established

• The camel curricula should be revised and improvements

made at all levels

THANK YOU!!