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

Chapter 7 – Milk and dairy programmes affecting nutrition 283
trends, ranked as observational/formative, could not directly link VAC with positive
nutrition outcomes, although increases in ASF consumption and decreases in
underweight, stunting, and anaemia have been observed over the last two decades
since its inception (Hop, 2003).
The dairy programme, Operation Flood, in India has received considerable
attention and was included recently among the Millions Fed case studies as a successful
initiative to reduce food insecurity in India (Cunningham, 2009). Operation
Flood aimed to create a “milk grid” that connected rural, small-scale dairy
producers to urban areas through sophisticated procurement systems. Village-level
cooperatives were established to help link smallholders, 80 percent of whom owned
two to five cows, to urban consumers. Cross-bred cows were introduced as well as
other processing inputs such as silos, pasteurizers, storage tanks and refrigerators.
Another innovation of the programme was the use of food-aid milk powder in the
supply chain during seasons of low domestic milk production. Cunningham (2009)
examined district and national level data from before and after the programme and
concluded that “the growth in production has made milk increasingly available to
consumers, providing an important source of nutrition for millions of people”. The
study was not designed to examine the impact of dairy (or income derived from
dairy) on nutrient intake and the nutritional levels of participating households.
Also in India, the Karnataka Dairy Development Project was launched in 1974 to
support development of village cooperatives aimed at increasing production through
improved animal nutrition and cross-breeding. A well-designed study, classified at
plausibility level of inference, demonstrated that there was increased nutrient intake
among dairy-producing households (Alderman, 1987). The presence of a cooperative
tended to reduce milk consumption, largely as a result of increases in prices, but
the nutrient intake of milk producers increased because their income increased. In
contrast, increases in the prices of rice and ragi reduced nutrient intakes. The author
concludes that “There appears to be less need for concern about the effects of local
milk prices on nutrition than about the effects of local cereal prices on nutrient
intake”. No behaviour-change communication/nutrition education component was
included in this project.
Another case study from the Millions Fed project was the Homestead Food
Production (HFP) programme of HKI (Iannotti, Cunningham and Ruel, 2009).
HFP includes interventions to increase food production through agriculture and
livestock inputs, increase knowledge and awareness through behaviour change,
improve health through establishing linkages with health services and empower
women through control of resources. Largely through the use of pre- and postevaluation
design and achieving only adequacy level of inference, HKI has found
that HFP is associated with improved dietary quality and diversity both through
increased income and wealth and increased availability of ASF through own production
pathways. It is estimated that the food security of approximately 5 million
people in Bangladesh has improved as a result of the programme. However, HFP
programmes have not yet been shown to have a meaningful impact on nutritional
status as measured by anthropometry or markers of micronutrient nutrition (Iannotti,
Cunningham and Ruel, 2009).