Current Practices and Future Prospective in Pre-urban Camel Farming in Khartoum State, Sudan

Abstract

Camels (Camelus dromedarius) are animals with special importance for nomadic commu-nities in tropical and subtropical areas, as they have the ability to maintain milk production under harsh environmental conditions, under scare of water and feed. Camels represent the back bone in the economical live of abbala (tribes known by rearing camel) in Sudan, either by selling male camels in local markets or by exportation. Moreover, the recent awareness of the medicinal value of camel milk, give way to more commercially oriented attitude by abbala in Khartoum State. This not only lead to food security but also improving abbala's style of life (milk of camels sold in more than double prize (3.0 $/ liter compared to milk of cows). However the milk which produced by those abbala is of less quality as was observed during the present survey, which addressed a total of hundred camels farms. The obtained information includes the socioeconomic status of camel herd owners and some practices used in production of milk from she camels (nagas). Camel owners were found to practice less hygiene as little rotational health care (4 %), less udder washing (8 %), washing milker hands and equipment (76 and 58 % respectively) were observed in addition no special area for milking was found. This might be because of that the majority of camel owners were illiterates (84 %). Frontline extension staff is needed to demonstrate improved husbandry practices to the farmers. Focusing dairy development efforts to abbala will provide great potential in improving public health through production of good quality milk, moreover, it will provide a good opportunity for trade of camel milk, which would increase the families income. It could be concluded that more attention is needed to put milk production from nagas in Sudan in the right track. This could be done by introduction of proper collecting points supported by cooling facilities and processing units.