Milk-and-Dairy-Products-in-Human-Nutrition-FAO

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Milk and dairy products in human nutrition
using a pre- and post-intervention design to look at programme outcomes related
to income and milk consumption. Only adequacy inference is possible from this
design. Some process-evaluation data were also collected to look at goat production.
Using the Helen Keller International (HKI) food frequency questionnaire,
they determined that children in the 39 households surveyed in Gorogutu District
consumed milk more frequently following the intervention. In Gursum District,
FARM-Africa found that more than 85 percent of the intervention households,
especially young children, consumed the goat milk they produced.
While there were several positive nutrition-related outcomes such as increased
milk consumption and other dietary intake improvements, the DGDP was not able
to demonstrate effects on clinical signs of vitamin A deficiency. In December 1995,
a new trial was developed to test whether adding an integrated package of interventions
to DGDP, including more-concerted efforts to promote vitamin-A-rich foods
such as goat milk, would better achieve the nutrition outcomes (Ayalew, Gebriel
and Kassa, 1999). Formative research was conducted to develop nutrition messages,
and an integrated package that involved working through women’s groups and
delivering messages through community education, radio and television broadcasts,
and the intervention was implemented from December 1996 to August 1997. Again,
a pre-intervention (February–March 1996) and post-intervention (January–March
1998) design was used for evaluation. In addition to the limitations imposed by
this adequacy-level design, 32 percent dropout rate and compromised intervention
integrity (33 percent maintained the same pattern of goat ownership while others
acquired new goats or lost the original goats) posed serious problems for analyses.
The results showed that diversity of children’s diet was greater in the postintervention
period than pre-intervention (Ayalew, Gebriel and Kassa, 1999). In
the goat-owning households, all the milk produced was consumed. However,
investigators found that goat ownership alone did not reduce risk of vitamin-A
deficiency but that milk consumption and income from agricultural sales were
inversely related to vitamin-A deficiency. These results further reinforce the need
for more integrated, comprehensive intervention packages.
Participatory research carried out in Liben and Shinile, Ethiopia, prior to
developing interventions to promote milk consumption (Sadler and Catley, 2009)
demonstrated that Somali pastoralists’ have a strong appreciation for milk (Randolph
et al., 2007). Milk supplied two-thirds of energy and 100 percent of protein
for young children around one year of age. Children’s milk consumption varied
between seasons and fell during droughts. The communities identified interventions
to improve animal health (fodder production, increased water supply and veterinary
care) as a means to ensuring adequate supply of milk for consumption (Sadler and
Catley, 2009).
7.3.2 Asia and the Pacific
The VAC system is a traditional farming approach in Viet Nam that incorporates
environmental, ecological and nutritional principles. V stands for vuon or garden
(all land cultivation activities), A for ao or pond (all aquaculture), and C for
chuong or cattle shed (all animal husbandry). Since 1989, there have been positive
trends nationally in poverty reduction, agricultural production, socio-cultural,
environmental, and health outcomes (Hop, 2003). This ecological study of secular