Quenching a thirst for camel milk

10/07/2024

In the heart of the Gobi Desert in Mongolia, Nergui Ochirbat tends to his herd of 30 Bactrian camels. He has been rearing camels for over 30 years, having inherited a few from his parents.

"Camels are quite resilient and docile creatures that require little to no oversight," Nergui explains. "They endure and survive in harsh conditions, which makes them perfect animals to rear in this region compared to other livestock that require constant care."

The two-humped creatures are the main source of his family’s livelihood, providing wool and milk throughout the year. These camelids are able to survive in the most challenging environments. Their adaptive traits have made them one of the few animals that can withstand the harsh conditions in this region of Mongolia. The Gobi Desert is a place where the summer days bring aridity and sandstorms; while, the winter carries with it fierce winds and temperatures below freezing. 

For several consecutive years, however, the southern Gobi region has been experiencing extreme droughts. Due to little to no rainfall, the once grassy hills where Nergui would bring his camels have now browned and become emptied of plants. With limited pasture for his animals to graze on, milk production has halved, reducing a vital source of nutrition and income for herder families in the region.

Changing climate conditions paired with limited pasture availability are also forcing many herders like Nergui to migrate to neighbouring districts in search of better pastures and water. But “camels are creatures of habit, reluctant to leave their homes, often attempting to return to familiar grounds,” explains Nergui, whose lifelong experience with these animals has taught him to understand the habits of the Bactrians.

“As the camels are not producing milk like they used to, the herders nowadays are making a living off of selling camel meat, and those with a small number of camels have stopped caring for their camels,” says Nergui with concern.

Despite these challenges, Nergui is reluctant to give up on his camels. It is with this determination that he set out to explore new approaches to enhance the quality and quantity of camel milk.

Nergui now works at a camel dairy farm that was built recently with support from a European Union (EU) funded project – “SDG-Aligned Budgeting to Transform Employment in Mongolia”. The project, implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), is aiming to create employment opportunities in the arid region by strengthening the camel milk value chain.

The farm itself represents a pioneering initiative in the country. The herders bring their camels and work at the farm for a year. They benefit from the already established farm facilities and labour-saving equipment, some of which include stationary milking parlours, mobile milking machines, storage rooms and feed mixers. After a year, the herders are equipped with all the knowledge to run their own farms. They then have the opportunity to either continue working at the camel dairy farm or establish their own farms from which they could directly supply the milk they produce to a processing factory.

The herder communities in Mongolia, traditionally, do not feed their camels with any supplemental feed and only hand-milk their camels from September to February. But now with the knowledge and resources from the project, camel herders like Nergui, who were once sceptical about rearing camels in a farm setting, have now witnessed the increased production in milk that has come with giving them supplemental feed.

Milking equipment provided by the project has also contributed to the increased quality in milk production whilst reducing the labour-intensive process of hand-milking. 

Through an EU-funded project, FAO is providing camel herders with farm facilities and labour-saving equipment to boost camel-milk production. ©FAO

As livelihoods in this region are highly dependent on the products from camels, the project is helping to boost the milk production and incomes for camel herders. Nergui is eager to share what he has learned with fellow herders. He hopes that others will welcome the technology and practices for themselves and reap the benefits, just as he has.

“Facing reduced rainfall and more frequent sand and dust storms, camel herders should explore and embrace new methods and technologies,” Nergui believes, and this is the message he plans to pass on.

Even as climate change sweeps across the Gobi Desert, Nergui envisions a hopeful future where innovation can help camel herding flourish for years to come. 

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