Livestock Services and the Poor: A global initiative - IFAD

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LIVESTOCK SERVICES AND THE POOR
Livestock can improve
the nutritional status
of poor families
Animal source food
plays a particular role
in child nutrition
Livestock can also improve the nutritional status of poor
families. Malnutrition often results from a combination of a lack
of access to food, a lack of nutritional knowledge and inequality
in the distribution of resources within families. The extra regular
income derived from livestock production therefore has the
potential to increase access to food within the family. At the same
time, enhanced knowledge and status among women significantly
reduce malnutrition among the women and their children.
Eklund (2002) describes how nutritional development projects
in Nepal demonstrate that malnutrition among children is
substantially reduced if mothers raise the level of their education
and add to their status.
The consumption of even small amounts of food processed
from animals can significantly improve the diets of children in
the developing world. Several studies show that the intake of
animal products positively affects the physical and cognitive
development of children, and the added value of even very small
amounts of supplementary animal food by children in poor
families is underestimated (Neumann and Harris, 1999). Poor
families often consume very little animal food, however, but rely
mostly on cereals or roots for food even if they produce animal
products. Studies of the nutritional impact of poultry projects in
Bangladesh have confirmed this. Animal produce was usually
sold for cash to purchase other foods such as rice, fruits and fish.
Nonetheless, the impact of the poultry projects in terms of
improvements of nutritional status among children and mothers
was still substantial (Roos et al., 2002). This shows the importance
of livestock production in terms of nutrition, even if the livestock
products are not consumed directly by the families.