Fasting, food and farming: Value chains and food taboos in Ethiopia.

Eline D’Haene,Bart Minten,Senne Vandevelde,Eric Fèvre

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0259982

Abstract

The impact of food taboos-often because of religion-is understudied. In Ethiopia, religious fasting by Orthodox Christians is assumed to be an important impediment for the sustainable development of a competitive dairy sector and desired higher milk consumption, especially by children. However, evidence is limited. Relying on unique data, we shed light on three major issues. First, we observe that the average annual number of fasting days that Orthodox adults are effectively adhering to is 140, less than commonly cited averages. Using this as an estimate for extrapolation, fasting is estimated to reduce annual dairy consumption by approximately 12 percent nationally. Second, farms adapt to declining milk demand during fasting by increased processing of milk into storable products-fasting contributes to larger price swings for these products. We further note continued sales of milk by non-remote farmers and reduced production-by adjusting lactation times for dairy animals-for remote farmers. Third, fasting is mostly associated with increased milk consumption by the children of dairy farmers, seemingly because of excess milk availability during fasting periods. Our results suggest that fasting habits are not a major explanation for the observed poor performance of Ethiopia's dairy sector nor low milk consumption by children. To reduce the impact of fasting on the dairy sector in Ethiopia further, investment is called for in improved milk processing, storage, and infrastructure facilities.

Highlights

Religious traditions are often reflected in food choices as various religious groups lay out food recommendations to their adherents
We study the effects of fasting practices, focusing on the case of dairy production and consumption in Ethiopia, the second most populous country in Africa
We look at what the effects of these demand changes due to fasting are on the dairy value chain and, which adaptation strategies milk producing households develop to overcome the effects of low demand during fasting periods

Summary

Introduction

Religious traditions are often reflected in food choices as various religious groups lay out food recommendations to their adherents. This makes Ethiopian diets susceptible to agroclimatic patterns, and to the sequential cycle of religious fasting Studying this issue in Ethiopia is an important topic given low overall consumption of milk [14], especially by children, and the potential prohibitive effects this has on investments in dairy production, possibly contributing to the underdevelopment of the country’s dairy sector compared to other countries in the region [15]. As the impact of fasting at the national level is found to be relatively small and as we find that children consume milk when it is available, even in fasting periods, this suggests that other issues, such as availability and affordability, and not fasting, are the main impediments to increased dairy consumption This finding is corroborated by the high income and price elasticities for dairy products [11]. As well as improving market access and transportation facilities to assure market integration and allow marketing to areas where fasting is less prevalent

Background

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Results

Discussion and conclusion