Livestock and human nutrition

The Livestock Emergency Guidelines and Standards (LEGS) commissioned a discussion paper “Livestock and Nutrition” (2020, 14pp) by Kate Sadler that reviewed key issues relating to human nutrition in the context of livestock-based emergency interventions. The literature review gave particular attention to: i) the contribution of livestock to household nutrition; ii) the impact of emergencies on this contribution; and iii) the human nutritional benefits of appropriate livestock-based emergency interventions.

The paper calls attention to the strong seasonality in access to milk and other animal source foods in pastoralist households. Many pastoralist groups in Eastern Africa (e.g. Masaai, Rendille, Turkana and Borana) used to consume 50–90% of their dietary energy in the form of milk and milk products, but access to milk and meat is changing in communities impacted by climate change, droughts and sedentarisation.

Three short case studies illustrate impacts of livestock emergency responses on human nutrition. One of the cases assesses an intervention to give milking goats to pastoralist households in Somali Region, Ethiopia, that were recurrently affected by child malnutrition.

Posted on 29 December 2020 in Pastoralist Livelihoods & Nutrition