Using research outputs for sustainable community development: Lessons learnt in camel milk studies in Kenya.
Abstract
World all over, it has been common practice to chastise animal science research workers (an
indeed all researchers) for doing excellent work but only hemming their findings, conclusions and
recommendations in well bound reports that are neatly stack in shelves. Consequently, as livestock
stakeholders crave for solutions and innovative ways of circumventing the multiple challenges that
confront them on daily basis, many cutting edge research outputs are gathering dust somewhere in
offices and libraries. In its endeavor to do development unusually, and also in seeking for practical
solutions and easily adaptable innovations to the constraints in camel milk marketing, the Ministry of
Livestock Development, with assistance from the African Development Bank, designed the ASALBased
Livestock and Rural Livelihoods Support Project (ALLPRO) with an inbuilt research programme
within the project design. This in essence meant that funds were made available not only for camel
milk market development purposes, but also for camel milk marketing research activities, that were
meant to provide insights into the researchable issues encountered during the implementation of the
project. In addition, the implementation framework provided opportunities for continuous upscaling
and outscaling the accruing positive lessons learnt from implementation, including making provision
for facilitating acquisition of appropriate technologies. To ensure a proactive approach, ALLPRO
identified key collaborating institutions, namely: International Livestock research Institute (ILRI),
Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) and Kenya Camel Association (KCA) among others),
who brought in their comparative advantages to the project. The combined expertise put in place a
formidable team that ensured that research findings were documented and used to design functional
training modules for the stakeholders involved in camel milk value chain. Moreover, due to the
realism of the ensuing research outputs, this project have been to rally many development agents
towards designing the up upcoming Garissa camel milk dairy plant. The outcome of this project
is a stunning success, and an example of an innovative and sustainable community development
endeavors.