The Role of Gender in Strengthening the Causal Linkages between

Livestock Production and Human Nutrition

Jemimah NjukiPresented at the BECA-CSIRO Workshop on Human Nutrition

ILRI Nairobi, 26-29th April 2010

First a note on agriculture and nutrition Four main pathways through which agriculture can

improve nutrition

Increasing household availability and access to sufficient and affordable quantities of food

Increasing availability and access to high-quality foods and diverse diets

Reducing gender inequity and empowering women, who play a critical role in ensuring food, nutrition and health security for their families

Increasing income and reducing poverty in households and communities engaged in agricultural work

Agriculture links to nutrition

BreastfeedingComplementary feedingVitamin AZincHygiene

INSTITUTIONS

POLITICAL & IDEOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK

ECONOMIC STRUCTURE

RESOURCESENVIRONMENT, TECHNOLOGY, PEOPLE

Food/nutrientintake

Health

Water/Sanitation

health services

Interventions

Immediate causes

Underlying causes

Basic causes

- Agriculture- Poverty Reduction- Education- Health Systems Strengthening- Income generation- Women’s empowerment

Maternal and child-

care practices

Access to food

How can we improve nutrition?

Livestock production and human nutrition? What do we know?

Figure. Hypothesized causal linkages between livestock keeping and human nutrition and health outcomes among the poor (adapted from Nicholson et al., 2003). ASF = animal-source food; HH = household (Randolph et al. 2007)

Animalsowned

Humannutritional

(growth) status

Human healthstatus

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Probability ofzoonotic disease

Animalproduction

Food cropproduction

Food crop sales

Animal &product sales

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+ +

+

-

HHIncome

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+

Dietaryintake

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Level of care/feedingbehavior

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Labor allocatedto livestock

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-

Labor demands on(female) caregiver

Total labordemands

+

+

Healthinputs

+

Food croppurchases

ASF purchases

HH cropconsumption

HH ASFconsumption

+

+

+

+

+

Chronicdisease risk +

-

Land allocationto feed

Traction, nutrientcycling

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+

+

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Environmental toxinconcentration

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+

test

test

Food-bornediseases

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-

Watercontamination

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-

Its complex!

Basic pathways from livestock production to improved nutrition

Consumption of animal source foods from a household's own production

Impacts on household income from sale of livestock products (can be spent on other food, or not)

Impacts on productivity of cropping systems through nutrient cycling

Impacts on the allocation of labour, including labour for care of children

Impacts on human disease incidence from livestock keeping

Assuming some simplicity………..

? ?

What are the intervening issues What are the pre-conditions

Consumption of animal source foods and improved nutrition: what do we know?

ASF are energy dense and good sources ofProteinMinerals (Fe, Zn and Ca)Vitamins (Vit B12 and Riboflavin)

Many minerals are better absorbed from ASF than they are from plant source foods

ASF also tend to be rich in fat, good source of fat soluble vitamins

Potential to boost immunity in HIV infected persons

Consumption of animal source foods and improved nutrition: what do we know?

Pregnancy Consumption of ASF associated with infant growth Maternal haemoglobin concentration associated with

infant birth weight

Infancy and childhood Positive association between milk consumption and

height for age Z scores of children (Ruel, 2003) Positive association between meat consumption by

children and physical growth In Kenya, children consuming meat had greater MUAC

than non-consumers (Grillenberger, 2005) In observational studies in 3 countries, the only dietary

measure that has predicted cognitive performance in children is the amount of ASF in the diet (Allen, 1993)

Consumption of animal source foods and improved nutrition: what do we know?

Animal Source Foods and Chronic Disease Risk Red meat consumption can increase the risk of

coronary heart disease and several forms of cancer (Hu and Willet, 1998). Poultry consumption does not seem to be a risk factor and fish may lower the risks

In healthy diets, the beneficial role of meat outweighs the uncertain association with cancer (Hill, 2002)

We know the links between consumption of ASF and improved nutrition!

• What we do not know is:– what are the interventions, programs, policies that will lead

to livestock production leading to increased consumption of animal source foods !

– To what extent is this a technology /social science question? Or a combination?

?

Livestock production and improved nutrition? What are the intervening factors

Set within 4 levels of dairy intensification• Low-income smallholder households without cattle• Low-income smallholder households with

indigenous cattle with no or very irregular milk sales

• Low-income smallholder households already participating in formal milk markets (still low market orientation)

• Low-income smallholder households with cross or purebred dairy cows and regular milk sales.

1. Direct Nutrition Benefits

Intermediate determinants of child nutritional status

Breast Feeding and weaning practices Food intake patterns and practices (diet

diversity and food frequencies) Intra-household food allocation Nutrition knowledge, attitudes and

practices

2. Gender mediated interventions Changes in women’s roles with

introduction /intensification of livestock production especially in terms of time allocation (care giver time)

Decision making in relation to use of milk and income allocation

Expenditure patterns-food and health input purchases

Access to training, nutrition information, livestock assets

3. Household Economics Changes in income

and income share generated by dairy activities

Income expenditure on food

Allocation of milk production to own consumption vs sale

4. Public Health

Health related determinants of child nutritional status (healthcare expenditure and health seeking behaviour

Disease risk profiling

Syndromic surveillance

Access to public health services and information

Key Areas for further research Given these social factors intervening between livestock

production and improvements in human nutrition What livestock? What milk? What forms? How do we structure livestock programes so that they

deliver on nutrition outcomes? What are the most optimal pathways (combination of

pathways) to nutrition improvement through livestock Safety and nutrition