There are differnet point of views and philosophies about the coping with the climate change challenge, especially with the context of the food security. In my point of view, adaptation is one of the key and important tool to cope with the climate change and ensure our livelihood on the heating up planet.
One of the most important adaptation tools is the camel, yes camel. Camel can tolerate long days of soaring heat when mercury touches 52 Celcius. Camel is good in water economy and food conversion efficiency. Here are some important points in the bulleted paragraphs for your understanding and consideration.
- Camel is the most efficient animal in water economy, as camel consumes 8-10 times less water than the dairy cow in the same environment to produce 1 kg of milk
- Camel has unique gut flora (microbiome), very diverse and as efficient as the termite’s microflora, can digest the hardiest and toughest dry matter, the camel can convert wood into energy
- Camel is protein efficient as camel recycles blood urea and fulfill some of the protein requirement its recycling mechanism
- Camel has very minute or zero-emission because of its efficient digestive system which digests feedstuffs in a way that produce very little methane
- The high temperature cannot depress the milk yield of the camel, ironically the camel lactation curve incline in the harsh summer days
- Camel does not need any cooling inputs, they can tolerate the skin burning heat waves of the desert, otherwise, in the same environment the dairy cattle need artificial cooling systems which consume energy and water
- Camel can easily walk for long distances to reach water and vegetations
- Camel is highly resistant to the stress of weather, production (high yield in the dairy cow is very stressful in the same environmental conditions), and water & food shortage
Camel Needs Support at Policy Level
The camel needs our support at the policy level, national, regional,and international magnitude. Camel is the real hope of the drought and dryness striken lands of the world. We should advocate camel at all level, to give priority to the camel as a food security animal in climate change context.