Impact of improved small-scale livestock farming on human nutrition

Md Emran Hossain,Emanuele Giorgi,Md Ahasanul Hoque,Goutam Buddha Das,Guillaume Fournié,Joerg Henning

doi:10.1038/s41598-020-80387-x

Abstract

Micronutrient deficiencies and stunting rates are high in many low-income countries. Increasing and diversifying food intake are often challenging for small-scale farmers in lowland areas as flooding often results in crop losses and drowning of livestock. A cluster-randomised controlled trial was conducted over 12-months in Bangladesh, involving 150 small-scale duck rearing households, including 50 control, and 50 households each in two intervention arms. Interventions focussing on improving duck health and duck nutrition were applied on a village level. Data analysis focussed on assessing the impact of interventions on duck mortality, sales and consumption, and on dietary diversity of household members. Improved duck rearing increased the consumption and the sales of ducks. Household selling more ducks were more likely to purchase and consume milk products, contributing to an improved households’ dietary diversity. Our results suggest that improving duck rearing can provide a suitable and sustainable alternative to maintain and improve dietary diversity of households in flood-prone areas.

Highlights

Micronutrient deficiencies and stunting rates are high in many low-income countries
In a review of animal production interventions, Leroy et al.15 highlighted that scientific evidence is needed to demonstrate that the nutritional status of humans can be improved through interventions promoting animal production
Some baseline characteristics were similar for households in the treatment (Table 1), the Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS) and experience in duck rearing in years was slightly lower in Intervention I and slightly higher in Intervention II group compared to the Controls

Summary

Introduction

Micronutrient deficiencies and stunting rates are high in many low-income countries. Increasing and diversifying food intake are often challenging for small-scale farmers in lowland areas as flooding often results in crop losses and drowning of livestock. Data analysis focussed on assessing the impact of interventions on duck mortality, sales and consumption, and on dietary diversity of household members. Household selling more ducks were more likely to purchase and consume milk products, contributing to an improved households’ dietary diversity. Our results suggest that improving duck rearing can provide a suitable and sustainable alternative to maintain and improve dietary diversity of households in flood-prone areas. Malnutrition in Bangladesh is among the highest in the world, with 36% of children under 5 stunted, and almost half of the population of children under 5 being a naemic5 This malnutrition usually encompasses a combination of an inadequate intake of energy, micronutrients and p rotein. Data collected in questionnaire survey in Tanzania indicated that numbers of chickens owned was correlated with a reported minimum number of food groups consumed in households, a causal relationship could not be shown with study design u sed

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