Pastoral dairy development project

Pastoralist livestock production systems in Somalia traditionally depend on the export of slaughter animals to the Middle East. The devaluation of Somali livestock due to imposed export bans has led to a deterioration of the terms of trade and to an increased vulnerability of pastoralist livelihoods. This project aims to contribute to addressing this vulnerability by promoting and supporting the Somali dairy industry.

In Somalia, camel milk and milk products are a very important source of protein and the main source of Vitamin C for human nutrition (Muslims do not eat blood and Somali meat is mainly exported). Milk is available over most parts of the year and plays an important role in the diets of children, the elderly and sick people. Milk sales provide a regular and reliable income to meet the daily needs of pastoralists.

Despite the large number of livestock kept in the country, the growing domestic demand for milk is largely met by imports of milk powder and, apart from one pilot milk plant in Gardo, there is no dairy industry or modern milk processing in Somalia.

Large volumes of raw milk are handled by the informal market and supplied daily to urban consumers. However, milk transporters and milk traders lack the technical skills and basic understanding of milk hygiene to be able to provide quality fresh milk to the markets.

Milk that has gone bad or sour fetches a 25-40% lower price than fresh milk, which puts pressure on incomes of both traders and producers. The paradox is that in a country where milk represents a staple food, pastoralist milk producers and urban milk consumers are poorly interlinked through a weak and unreliable trade chain.

VETAID is co-ordinating this project in partnership with Tierärtze ohne Grenzen, the German partner from the network Vétérinaires sans Frontières Europa.

This project aims to:

• Alleviate poverty for livestock owners and others in the dairy sector (milk traders, processors) by providing an increased and stable income from dairy products.
• Enhance food security through improved quality of dairy products.
• Build the capacity of stakeholders in the dairy sector.

Key activities:

• Provide training on basic milk hygiene, milk collection, milk handling during transport and milk quality control.
• Improve market access and strengthen milk collection networks through simple cooling facilities on charcoal-water basis (evaporative cooling).
• Diversify income for poor pastoralists by introducing appropriate processing technology to support a seasonal “cottage industry” production of storable and marketable milk products, for example oriental sweets, condensed milk and ghee. This will enable beneficiaries to turn a seasonal surplus of milk into income.