Improved Child Nutrition through Cattle Ownership in Kenya

Malnutrition affects large numbers of children throughout the developing world. In Kenya, nearly one-third of children showed evidence of chronic malnutrition in the mid 1990s. A major cause of malnutrition in Kenya is inadequate dietary intake, both in terms of quantity and quality. The effects of inadequate intake are most pronounced during periods of rapid physiological change, such as pregnancy or childhood and adolescence. The consequences of malnutrition include reduced resistance to disease, retarded physical growth, poor cognitive development, and reduced physical activity.

Such factors diminish the productivity not only of individuals, but collectively of societies and whole nations. This brief considers how positive factors, such as cattle ownership, can encourage milk intake, especially among the young. This is the last in a series of five policy briefs.

Other issues include:

• Tackling malnutrition, especially micronutrient deficits, can have considerable long-term benefits for individual children, both physically and mentally
  
• Milk consumption is very effective in addressing these micronutrient deficiencies in children, especially for poor households, as well as providing an important source of protein.
  
• Cattle ownership offers a potential route to improved child nutrition, whether by increasing milk availability or by increasing household incomes.
  
• For these potential benefits to be realised, more understanding is needed of allocations of milk and control of resources within households.
  
• Continued efforts to educate people on the benefits of milk consumption, and to increase children's access to milk through means other than cattle ownership, would also be beneficial.
  
• Policy directions that encourage milk availability and consumption will bring significant long-term benefits to the health and economy of Kenya.