Small scale farming for people in LMICS
In developing countries most rural households keep livestock, especially in Africa
Studies of gifting livestock on food security
According to many international development organisations, one solution to food insecurity is to give food insecure families livestock. For example One project championed on the FAO website distributed over 30,000 chickens, feed and equipment to 1000 families displaced by violence and war in Cameroon. They report that the initiative was a success, with many families profiting from selling the chickens and reporting better nutrition for their families.
However the empirical research on food security benefits of gifting livestock is surprisingly weak. A systematic review by Blackmore et al 2018 of “small livestock” (fish, goats and chickens) found only 29 studies, with most being “exploratory” studies that could only provide suggestive evidence of benefits. While gifts of small livestock seemed to improve some metrics such as family income, other metrics such as female empowerment and childhood stunting did not improve. A common theme was that surface level metrics often improved when families were given small livestock; families increased their herd sizes, and reported eating more animal products and a more diverse diet. However, these metrics are not inherently valuable and are only valuable as proxies for other metrics (dietary diversity and eating more animals as a proxy for improved nutrition, for example).
Another systematic review by Masset et al., 2015 was restricted to high quality studies of agricultural interventions to improve childhood nutrition (they found 23 studies). interventions included bio-fortification, home gardens, small-scale fisheries/aquaculture, dairy development, and animal husbandry/poultry development. Similarly to Blackmore et al., they found improvement in surface level metrics such as "more goods produced" and more animal products consumed, but this often didn't translate into higher income or reduced childhood stunting or wasting. Masset and colleagues argue that this is more likely due to small scale studies than lack of benefits, but conclude that the current evidence from development economics too weak to build firm policy on.
Both Masset et al., (2015) and Blackmore et al., (2018) are systematic reviews, and so in principle contain all relevant published studies. Both conclude that surprisingly we do have strong evidence to say whether gifting livestock to families will generally improve their food security.
Nakiganda et al., 2006
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