The importance of camel (Camelus dromedaries) in the livelihoods of herders: the case of camel herders’ households in peri-urban N’Djamena and pastoral Fitri, Chad

The objective of this study was to analyse the contribution of camel farming to pastoral household livelihood. A survey was conducted among 200 households, 108 in peri-urban N’Djamena and 102 in pastoral Fitri in central Chad. Two types (one per zone) of household livelihood strategies were used to analyse the data. Camel herders’ households are largely specialised, with camels comprising at least 80% of herds (in terms of tropical livestock units, TLU). Such households are livestock farming specialists, with 60% of households not undertaking any cultivation. Camel farming in peri-urban N’Djamena differed from that in pastoral Fitri because of the importance of milk sales that contribute to the monetary income of families. Milk self-consumption as part of the gross product of camel farming represented 45% for pastoral Fitri and 21% for peri-urban N’Djamena. Households also exploited live animals for meat, mainly for sale, and a little for self-consumption in Fitri. The added value of live animals represented 55% (3.6 animals/year) of camel gross product in pastoral Fitri, because of the volume of milk self-consumption, and only 10% (1.6 animals/year) in peri-urban N’Djamena, because of milk sales. The livestock per adult equivalent (AE) was, on average, double for households in Fitri compared to those in peri-urban N’Djamena (14 vs 7 TLU/AE). Livestock composition was more diversified in Fitri, with camels (80% of TLUs), small ruminants and cattle, whereas households in peri-urban N’Djamena were even more specialised towards camels (90% of TLUs), besides keeping small ruminants. At Fitri, 40% of households grew crops, compared with only 24% around N’Djamena. The size of livestock holdings ranged from 7.8 TLU/AE for small-size households (4.8 AE) to 8.2 TLU/AE for very large-sized households (9.3 AE) in peri-urban N’Djamena, whereas at Fitri small households had a very high capital endowment (24.4 TLU/AE), medium-sized households were moderately endowed, with 13.9 TLU/AE, and large households were poorly endowed, with 10.8 TLU/AE. In both areas, camel farming provided a daily gross margin per AE over 663 CFA francs/day for three quarters of households, which corresponds to the national poverty threshold. However, only 16% of households generated a gross margin higher than the guaranteed interprofessional minimum wage, estimated at 2000 CFA francs/day. This specialisation of moving to camel herding allowed herders to get well adapted to arid environments. Additional research work is needed to provide a global vision of the potential of camels as a basis for livelihood strategies.