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

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Chapter 8
Dairy-industry
development programmes:
Their role in food and nutrition
security and poverty reduction
Brian Dugdill 1 , Anthony Bennett 2 , Joe Phelan 3 and Bruce A. Scholten 4
1 Chief Adviser, EDGET-Enhancing Dairy Sector Growth in Ethiopia,
EADD‐East Africa Dairy Development Project; 2 Livestock Industry Officer,
Agro-food Industries Group, Rural Infrastructure and Agro-Industries Division,
FAO, Rome, Italy; 3 International Consultant, Livestock and Food Systems;
4 Honorary Research Fellow, Geography Department, University of Durham,
Durham, United Kingdom
Abstract
This chapter focuses on dairy-industry development programmes (DIDPs) in developing
countries where nearly one billion people live on dairy farms, smallholdings
or in landless households keeping one or more animals. It differs from other chapters
in this publication in that it is generated from knowledge-based or field-learned
experiences, with some non-academic sources. The chapter focuses on selected
programmes and projects with objectives including nutrition and women’s empowerment
through dairying, and enterprise-oriented dairy development to improve
the livelihoods of poor families at scale. It highlights the pivotal role of milk and
dairy products in the diet of peoples in many parts of the developing world, and
how DIDPs have leveraged milk’s unique functional properties, contributing both
to household food security and to improving rural livelihoods for millions of smallscale
dairy farming families through generation of regular income and employment
along the dairy value chain. Experience indicates that investments in national capacity
and local dairy organizations and institutions can facilitate smallholder participation
in DIDPs. They can also significantly enhance household food security, and
pay both economically and socially. There are particular benefits to women, often
the decision-makers for household food and nutrition choices. High importance is
attached to modest but regular cash incomes from dairying. Investment risks in dairying
must be well managed, but there appear to be compelling opportunities to drive
the expansion and upscaling of DIDPs in many developing countries. The authors
argue that design of the dairy-industry value chain must benefit from FAO’s unique
comparative advantage in leveraging know-how and investment from public and
private sectors. There are, however, challenges for public and private sector partners
to ensure that smallholders and their enterprises benefit from dairy-industry development
and to ensure that nutritional outcomes are included as DIDP objectives.