Preliminary study: valorization of camel milk through improved feeding with by-products and development of high potential dairy products

Factsheet

Lead school School of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences
Institute HAFL Institut Hugo P. Cecchini
Agriculture
Research unit International Agriculture and Rural Development
Funding organisation Others
Duration (planned) 01.02.2024 - 31.12.2024
Project management Dr. Pascale Waelti
Head of project Dr. Pascale Waelti
Project staff Dr. Pascale Waelti
Sarah Chloé Guidi
Guillaume-Arthur Egli
Partner HES-SO Haute école spécialisée de Suisse occidentale
Faculté Polydisciplinaire de Taroudant
Keywords Sustainable production systems;Food and nutrition security, safety and quality;Access to markets and value chains;Climate change mitigation and adaptation;Innovation and co-creation of knowledge;

Situation

The Drâa-Tafilalet region in south-eastern Morocco is one of the country’s poorest. Here, camels are a major income source for the nomad population. This project explores way of improving the camel milk value chain in an inclusive way. The camels are kept mainly for meat and transportation, while their milk is mostly consumed locally by family members or by the young dromedaries (Al haj and Al Kanhal, 2010). This part of the country increasingly suffers from droughts due to climate change. Due to the lack of feed caused by drought, milk production of the camels decreased by 30% in 2022 compared to 2021 (Taha, 2023).

Course of action

This project focuses on three different aspects: (1) Development of a camel feed based on argan, tomatoes and watermelon by-products to compensate for the lack of natural feed; (2) Valorization of the camel milk with the development of new dairy products; (3) Development of a centralized production site in the form of a cooperative (preferably for women). This grant will allow the team from Switzerland to work with the team from Morocco to perform an extended value chain analysis to understand the needs and production challenges of all stakeholders in the camel-milk value chain. During this first phase, a market analysis and focus group discussions with potential consumers and production actors will take place. The goal is to understand the production challenges, possibilities and solutions for producers. Thanks to this preliminary study, it will be possible to focus on the development of the right camel dairy products, as well as a potential feed component based on by-products, for the next steps of the project.