Nutrition

Packed with protein and micronutrients

Photo Credit: Jeff Haskins

A balanced, nutritious diet is essential to good global health and all of the related benefits that this brings. While huge progress has been made in reducing hunger, 2 billion people globally are still not getting all the nutrients they need. Poor diets impair physical and cognitive development, preventing people, communities and countries from reaching their full potential.

Ensuring access to animal-source foods (ASFs) is a powerful way to ensure the world’s poorest can improve their diet, either through the animals they raise or the income they receive from them.

Micronutrients

Eggs and milk are nature’s first foods, designed to sustain and support early childhood with essential vitamins and minerals. A child who drinks milk daily can grow up to 3% more in a month.

Convenient, protein rich and energy dense

Animal-source foods are energy-dense, they provide readily absorbed and used proteins and they are especially important for vulnerable groups like children and sick people and in areas where other nutritious foods are not available. Small quantities provide large benefits.

Diverse diets are healthy diets

People eating diverse diets, including iron-rich meat, are less prone to anaemia and other nutrient deficiencies. Eating foods from animal sources reduces the risk of malnutrition associated with monotonous diets.

First 1,000 days

Pregnant and lactating women, and babies in their first 1,000 days, have particularly high protein and nutritional requirements. Eggs, meat and dairy products are 3 of the 7 food groups deemed by the World Health Organization to be essential to assessing the dietary diversity of infants.

Food security and nutrition goals

Livestock are critical to meet sustainable development goal 2 on ending hunger, achieving food security and improved nutrition and promoting sustainable agriculture.

Reasons to invest in livestock and human nutrition:

Livestock and nutrition - impact evidence on the ways investments in livestock systems can positively impact people, communities, and the environment:

Animal-source foods (ASF) are increasingly seen to play a vital role in providing high quality protein and important micro-nutrients to under-nourished people in poor countries, particularly children and women of maternal age. Experimental studies have shown that even small amounts of ASF provided to children regularly, such as an egg a day, can have very significant positive effects on children’s physical and cognitive development. However, besides school feeding programs which require large public expenditure, avenues to effectively increase the amounts of ASF consumed by children and others who need them, have been difficult to identify. Because livestock production is often market-oriented – its product are sold rather than consumed – or animals are kept as a store of wealth or social capital, simply keeping livestock has not been confirmed as a sure way to increase ASF consumption.

Rigorously documented studies present evidence that keeping livestock, or providing new livestock assets to rural households, can and does have a positive impact on household nutritional outcomes. The studies show that this is particularly true when such interventions are accompanied by appropriate training and other support. In some cases, these impacts are seen not only in the recipient households, but more generally in the communities in which they live.

Here we present evidence on the positive impacts of a range of livestock-related interventions on human nutrition. These include:

A study of a livestock distribution and farmer training program in Zambia found that providing cattle or goats increased diet diversity both directly and by increasing household income. It also led to greater diet diversity in the community.
In Kenya, data from a rural survey showed that when women owned or co-owned the livestock, the weight for age (WAZ) scores of children in their household were significantly better.
In Nepal, training in community development and livestock management had positive impacts on child diet quality, particularly in systems where livestock were important.
A livestock asset transfer program in Rwanda increased household diet diversity and directly impacted child nutritional status as measured by WAZ scores.
A large dataset from rural Tanzania found that households that did not keep large livestock had a 50% higher chance of stunting among preschool children.
A community-based rural development project in Bolivia with a livestock asset transfer component led to increased household diet diversity, largely due to increased consumption of animal-source foods.
Even though smallholder agriculture is a small enterprise, impact studies in Bangladesh show consistently that poultry projects enhance nutrition in poor households, in part by increases in income being used specifically for more ASF rather than grains.

Download a report with this and other impact evidence showing why livestock matter

Livestock and nutrition - impact evidence

• Distributing livestock to rural households can increase diet diversity

Several studies have shown that livestock asset transfer programs can enhance livelihoods through increased income opportunities, resilience and asset accumulation. Such livestock transfers can also have a positive and significant impact on peoples’ diets and nutrition. This study utilizes the staggered rollout of a livestock distribution initiative by Heifer International in Zambia to identify the effects of livestock keeping using statistically similar treatment and control groups in a balanced panel of households. The households organized and self-selected themselves into groups, underwent training and prepared animal holdings and shelters. The original beneficiary households received dairy cattle, meat goats or draft cattle, while other group members received the female offspring from the initially donated animals – so-called Pass-on-the-Gift (POG) households.

Nutrition among recipients was examined by looking at increased diet diversity which is associated with positive nutritional outcomes. The analysis of Diet Diversity Scores (DDS) among all households found that, controlling for consumption, expenditures and other factors, the receipt of these livestock types directly increased the probability of consuming an additional food group each day by 43–65%. This implies that the receipt of a dairy cow directly leads to 4.5 more days in a week during which the household consumes an additional food group. Goats have a direct effect on household dietary diversity of an additional food group 3 days of the week. Further analysis found an increase in dietary diversity through the direct consumption of animal products, but also indirectly by increasing income: expenditure plays a key role in determining dietary diversity. The study also found spillover effects within the target communities in the form of increased milk consumption among non-participating households, thus community wide impact. This study provides strong evidence than when accompanied by an appropriate training and support program, providing rural households with cattle or goats can have positive nutrition outcomes in the target households and across their communities.

Impact evidence sources:

Jodlowski, M. et al. 2016. Milk in the data: food security impacts from a livestock field experiment in Zambia. World Development 77: 99-114. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2015.08.009.

• Targeting livestock ownership to female household decision makers enhances child nutrition

In many developing country settings, particularly in Africa, women play an important role in managing and caring for livestock, even when they may not control all the related decision making. It is well established that women largely control the food received by children in such households.

This study in Kenya set out to establish whether greater women’s control of livestock translates into more consumption by children of animal-source foods, resulting in improved child nutritional status. The study relied on data from a large baseline study of the effectiveness of irrigation pumps, which also collected data on households, agriculture and livestock practices, and diets in addition to anthropometric measures of children under 5 years. Regression analysis was used to explore the relationship between livestock ownership (or co-ownership within the household) and animal-source food intake by children, as well as between animal-source food intake and the nutritional status of the children.

Nearly all (97%) of households reported owning livestock, although only 34% reported any female ownership (exclusive or co-owned with males). The mean value of male-owned livestock was more than three times the mean value of co-owned/female-owned livestock. The statistical results showed a positive association between co-owned/female-owned livestock with child weight-for-age z score (WAZ) after adjusting for other factors, and child animal-source food intake was estimated to explain 25% of that relationship. The remainder of that effect may be due to higher social status of the females owning livestock in some households, leading to greater overall control of children’s nutrition. The results show that targeting livestock development towards female or at least joint decision making can improve child nutrition in rural households, with long term positive impacts.

Impact evidence sources:

Minchao Jin and Ianotti, L.L. 2014. Livestock production, animal source food intake, and young child growth: The role of gender for ensuring nutrition impacts. Social Science and Medicine 105: 16-21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.01.001

• Training in community development and livestock management enhances child diet quality

Studies show that introducing livestock to rural households together with complementary training can improve child nutritional status, in part through increased consumption of animal-source foods. This study in Nepal sought to test whether similar livestock development programs increase diet quality and diversity more generally.

Six rural communities where livelihoods were predominantly agricultural were selected to participate in the phased implementation of a community-level development intervention by Heifer International. This comprised donating meat goats to selected households, accompanied by training in poverty alleviation, citizen empowerment, and community development, with an emphasis on livestock management as a means to income generation. Households and children in each community were surveyed at baseline, and follow-up surveys were implemented every six months for twenty-four months, during which 24 hour recall data for 17 foods and food groups were gathered. Matched pairs of communities in each of 6 study sites received either 12 months or 24 months of intervention.

The results indicated that the impacts of the intervention varied by agro-ecological region and by season. In the poorer hills region, which is also more livestock oriented, children who had received the intervention for two years were 1.27 times as likely to have achieved minimum dietary diversity and 1.38 times as likely to have consumed animal-source foods as children who received the intervention for only one year. In the lower Terai region, more oriented toward crop production, there was no significant change in dietary quality attributable to the intervention. These results show that particularly vulnerable families in certain settings can take advantage of community-level development activities associated with livestock interventions, and that that these can result in significantly improved children’s diets. The implication is that the positive impact of livestock keeping on child nutrition can be increased even in existing livestock systems, through targeted training and orientation.

Impact evidence sources:

Darrouzet-Nardi, A.F., Miller, L.C., Joshi, N., Mahato, S., Lohani, M. and Rogers, B.L. 2016. Child dietary quality in rural Nepal: Effectiveness of a community-level development intervention. Food Policy 61: 185-197.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2016.03.007

• Livestock asset distribution programs can directly improve child nutritional status in terms of weight for age scores

Livestock asset transfer programs among rural poor households have been demonstrated to improve livelihoods through increased income opportunities, resilience and asset accumulation. This study in Rwanda was conducted to determine whether such programs can also impact household diets and child nutritional outcomes.

The study evaluated two of Heifer International’s livestock donation programs, one distributing dairy cows, the other providing meat goats to rural households. Households received an in-calf heifer in the dairy program, and two female goats in the meat goat program. The outcomes addressed by the study included household dietary diversity and child nutritional attainment as determined by height-for-age, weight-for-height, and weight-for-age z-scores, which are indicators for stunting, wasting, and underweight, respectively. The econometric analysis compared beneficiary households with households targeted for animal donations but not yet receiving them, and with households that were not approved to receive animals. Surveys were conducted approximately one year after the animal donations and included 48 hour recall of food consumption and anthropometric tests of children in the household under the age of 5 years.

The impacts on dietary diversity were found only among the dairy households, where receiving a Heifer cow was associated with an average increase of 1.17 food groups consumed in the last 48 hours, with all the change attributed to increased dairy consumption. There was no apparent effect of meat goat donation on the number of food groups consumed. The results for child nutritional outcomes showed that donations of dairy cows show a positive and statistically significant (at the 10% level) effect on the mean height-for-age z-score for children. In the case of meat goat donations, the study did not find a significant effect on height-for-age z-scores but did observe a statistically significant and positive impact on weight-for-height score, presumed to be a result of greater short term impact on weight of meat consumption. The estimation results showed that both meat goat and dairy cow donations are associated with increased weight-for-age z scores (underweight). Since being underweight signifies a combination of chronic and acute malnutrition, it is not surprising that increased consumption of animal-source foods either from meat goats or dairy cows alleviates acute or chronic malnourishment and improves weight-for-age z-score measures.

The analysis underscores the important roles of livestock and animal-source foods for child nutrition. It also shows that donor investment in animal donation programs can have positive and significant nutritional impacts. The study goes beyond others by showing that livestock assets transfer not only lead to greater diet diversity, they measurably impact child nutritional status.

Impact evidence sources:

Rawlins, R. et al. 2014. Got milk? The impact of Heifer International’s livestock donation programs in Rwanda on nutritional outcomes. Food Policy 44: 202-213. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2013.12.003

• Keeping large livestock contributes strongly to improved nutrition of particularly younger children

Several studies have reported positive nutritional outcomes among children from programs that provide livestock to rural households, resulting in greater dietary diversity and consumption of animal-source foods. This study examines the impacts of livestock keeping on child nutrition more generally, comparing these to crop production in rural households, in this case in Tanzania.

Previous studies have found that even when agricultural interventions improve production, consumption and dietary diversity, there is little evidence that they improve key measures of nutritional status among children or adults. The data used for this study was from the Tanzania National Panel Survey (TZNPS), collected among the same households in two different rounds several years apart. In addition to detailed agricultural information, the survey was somewhat unique in that anthropometric information from children and adults was also gathered by age group. The analysis involved the statistical estimation of nutrition production functions for key indicators such as height-for-age (HAZ), weight-for-age (WAZ), weight-for-height (WHZ).

The findings show that agriculture is positively linked to nutrition, but the effects vary across ages, gender and the nutritional indicators used. Ownership of large livestock is linked to better child nutrition. Among pre-school children in households not owning large livestock the odds of stunting are 50 per cent higher. For children aged 5–9 from pastoralist households, weight-for-age and body mass index-for-age z-scores are respectively 0.6 and 0.5 standard deviations (SD) higher than the scores of similar children from households that also grow crops. There is limited evidence that the effects extend beyond age 10. No effects of crop production or livestock ownership are found for adults. These results further underscore the importance of livestock keeping in contributing to better nutrition, in this case not just among the youngest children but also among adolescents.

Impact evidence sources:

Slavchevska, V. 2015. Agricultural production and the nutritional status of family members in Tanzania. Journal of Development Studies 51(8): 1016–1033. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2015.1018906

• Community-based rural development projects with a livestock asset transfer component enhance household diet diversity

Plan VIDA-PEEP (PPV) in Bolivia was an initiative by IFAD and the Government to improve the livelihoods, including nutrition, of households in vulnerable municipalities through capacity building, financing of rural community-based development projects, and supporting citizenship and social inclusion. An impact assessment study was conducted on the community based productive investments, among which 80% of the interventions distributed livestock breeds to individual households. The impact analysis applied a quasi-experimental design approach that combined statistical methods (Propensity Score Matching) and qualitative analysis to identify a valid counterfactual measure of impact of the intervention.

While the evaluation did not find any significant effect by the project on nutrition indicators across all households, a significant increase in the household diet diversity score was found for households that had received livestock interventions. This was related to an increased and more diversified diet linked to the consumption of livestock related products. An analysis of the breakdown of the food groups consumed by household members in the week prior to the interview showed that beneficiary households had added eggs, milk and dairy products to their diets as well as cereals and tubers.

Further analysis shed light on the mechanisms behind this impact. Communities with livestock projects were more likely than their control counterparts to produce milk and milk products. This study provides evidence of the potential for livestock transfer programs combined with community based rural development projects, to positively impact nutritional outcomes.

Impact evidence sources:

Paolantonio, A., Cavatassi, R., McCollum, K. 2018. Impact assessment report: Plan VIDA-PEEP, Bolivia. Rome: IFAD. https://www.ifad.org/documents/38714170/41082475/BO_PLAN+VIDA_IA+report.pdf

• Smallholder poultry projects enhance nutrition in poor households

A set of semi-scavenging poultry programs in Bangladesh was implemented to reduce poverty and improve nutrition mainly among poor landless women, replicating a model of smallholder poultry production that had been developed and piloted in by the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) and the department of livestock (DLS). This replication of the model was implemented under three Smallholder Livestock Development Project between 1992 and 2003. The impacts of the projects on nutrition have been reported in numerous impact studies (Fakhrul and Jabbar, 2005).

It was envisaged during the design that increased poultry production would directly contribute to food security by enhancing consumption of poultry meat and eggs to some extent and indirectly by increasing income to purchase other foods. Alam (1997) found for SLDP I that consumption of all food items in beneficiary households increased. The increase in consumption was substantial in the case of eggs, chicken, milk, meat and grains. For eggs, consumption within households, among children, and especially boys, was given priority.

A Spearman's rank correlation analysis revealed a positive and significant correlation between total household income and consumption of grains, milk, chicken and eggs. When the analysis was repeated with beneficiaries’ income (SLDP income only) instead of total household income, a negative correlation was found with grain consumption, but a positive correlation was observed with milk, chicken and egg consumption.

Consequently, it was concluded that beneficiary households consumed more nutrients from other sources than grains with the increase in income after the project. Fakhrul and Jabbar (2005) citing findings by Nielsen (2003) showing that the positive impacts that the program had on nutrition continued under PLDP by observing that starvation in the lean season (about 4 month per year) reduced in 75% of the beneficiaries and intake of meals with eggs and fish increased in the rest of year.

Some observers have questioned the value of such poultry projects, given the small scale involved and the low levels of income that may be generated. These studies show however that significant and positive nutritional outcomes can be achieved through smallholder poultry investment.

Impact evidence sources:

Alam, J. 1997. Impact of smallholder livestock development project in some selected areas of rural Bangladesh. Livestock Research for Rural Development 9(3). http://www.lrrd.org/lrrd9/3/bang932.htm

Fakhrul I. and Jabbar, M. 2005. Smallholder poultry model for poverty alleviation in Bangladesh: a review of evidence on impact. Livestock Research for Rural Development 17 (10). https://www.lrrd.org/lrrd17/10/fakh17112.htm

Nielsen, H. 1997 Socio-economic impact of Smallholder Livestock Development Project, Bangladesh. IN: Dolberg, F. and Petersen, P.H. 1997. Integrated farming in human development: Proceedings of a workshop, Tune Landboskole, 25-29 March 1996.

Download: "Making the Case for Livestock: Nutrition" (PDF)

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