A woman drives her three donkeys home after collecting firewood at North
Horr area in Marsabit county on November 4, 2013. Photo/ JOSEPH KANYI
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
The UN food agency is recommending more usage of milk from a
variety of animals including donkeys, camels and llamas to counteract
high cow milk prices due to growing demand for dairy in the developing
world.
"There is huge scope for developing other dairy
species," Anthony Bennett, livestock industry officer at the United
Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Rome, was quoted as
saying in a statement.
In a report co-authored by
Bennett released Tuesday, the FAO said that alpaca, donkeys, moose,
reindeer and yak could also be milked, alongside other species that are
already used for milk like buffalo, goat and sheep.
It
said reindeer and moose milk was high in fat and protein and also
contained half the lactose found in cow milk, making it a possible
alternative source of dairy for people with lactose intolerance.
The
report forecast that dairy consumption in developing countries will
grow by 25 per cent by 2025 as a result of population growth and rising
incomes.
But it said that milk -- a crucial source of
dietary energy, protein and fat -- "will likely still be out of reach
for the most vulnerable households".
"Governments need
to address the issue by making nutrition a specific objective in dairy
sector development and by investing in programmes that help poor
families keep small dairy livestock," it said.
Alpaca
and llama and alpaca breeding could provide "a valuable nutritional and
economic resource" for people in mountainous areas of South America, it
said.
The FAO pointed out that camel milk is already prized in
Ethiopia, Mali and Somalia and mare's milk is consumed by 30 million
people in Russia and Central Asia.