Livestock-derived foods and the first 1000 days
The essential role of livestock-derived foods in the nutrition of mothers and infants
Boitshepo Giyose, Klaus Kraemer, Lora Iannotti, Maya Stewart, Osman Dar and Silvia Alonso
Side event at the 45th session of the United Nations Committee on World Food Security
Rome, Italy, 15–19 October 2018

Introduction
Osman Dar
Project Director, One Health Project, Centre
on Global Health Security, Chatham House
“The health, agriculture and trade sectors
should work closely together using a ‘One
Health’ approach to ensure national
priorities around food security, diet and
healthy nutrition are implemented while
maintaining sustainable economic growth.
Ensuring access to livestock derived foods
for the most vulnerable is one effective
option to achieving these aims.”

Nutritional Outcomes of Livestock
Derived Foods
Lora Iannotti
Associate Professor & Associate Dean for
Public Health, Washington University in
St. Louis
“The Lulun Project showed one egg per
day for 6 months during early
complementary feeding reduced stunting
by 47% in Ecuadorian children.”

Nutritional Importance of
livestock-derived foods
Global nutrition situation
• 151 million young children stunted; 50 million wasted; and
41 million overweight/obese
• Hidden hunger: 33% vitamin A deficient; 17% zinc
deficient; and 28% iodine deficient
• Animal source foods can play a major role in alleviating
these nutrition problems and achieving SDG2
• Evolutionary basis for animal source foods
• Evidence comes multiple fields: physical anthropology,
archeology, comparative anatomy, and biogeochemistry
• 99.5% of hominin history: highly diverse diet; ↑% ASF;
and no ultra-processed foods
• Homo erectus (2.6 mya) - diverged from other primates
bigger brain (3x encephalization quotient) & body (15%
taller), attributable to ASF

Food matrices: the importance of packaging
Limiting nutrient
Vit A →
Iron →
Zinc →
Choline →
ASF vs. plant
absorption rate
12-24x (ug)
2x (mg)
2x (mg)
ASF matrix

Lulun Project - eggs ↑linear growth by 0.63 LAZ, ↓stunting 47%
(Iannotti et al. Pediatrics 2017)
Baseline (dashed); Endline (solid)
Control Group Egg Group

Lulun Project:
Eggs improved biomarkers of brain development
Choline → 0.35 (95% CI: 0.12, 0.57)
• cell membrane (phosphatidylcholine); neurotransmission (acetylcholine);
memory & learning (hippocampus); gene expression (betaine to
methionine)
Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) → 0.43 (95%CI: 0.13, 0.73)
• predominant n-3 fatty acid in the brain
• neurogenesis, neurotransmission, myelination, synaptic plasticity

Nutrition and livestock-derived
foods: Future
Ecuador, Lulun
Kenya, Samburu Milk Project
Malawi, Mazira Egg ProjectMalawi, Mazira Egg Project

Silvia Alonso,
Senior Scientist –
Epidemiologist, ILRI
“Put livestock on the
national and international
agendas as a pathway to
healthy and bright futures
in low-income countries.”
Livestock Derived Foods;
The First 1000 days

Source of protein in diets
Grace et al, 2018. The influence of livestock-derived foods
on nutrition during the first 1,000 days of life

Oxfam, 2015

5 keywords:
• Equitable access
• Sustainable intensification
• Food safety
• Supportive International environment
• Enabling national/local policies
Photo credit: Kebede Amenu/Addis Ababa University

Sustainable Production: ‘Eggciting’
Innovations
Klaus Kraemer
Managing Director, Sight and Life
Foundation
“Promoting sustainable animal
production that meets dietary needs
requires a focus on nutrition, health &
the environment.”

We gathered insights
based on more than 160
interviews in Kenya,
Ethiopia, Malawi,
Indonesia and India, with
experts, farmers, input
suppliers, and poultry
enterprises

Several challenges plague
small holder poultry farmers
(who produce > 80% of all
eggs in low and middle
income countries).
1. Low productivity due to
high input costs & limited
access to
• Chicks (breed)
• Vaccines
• Feed
• Extension services
2. Limited access to
• Markets and
• Credit
3. High transportation costs
There are ‘eggciting’
solutions
1. Feed innovation
2. Resilient cross breeds
3. Innovative business
models that provide
affordable input
packages and extension
services

We found five successful
business models supporting
smallholder farmers that
that have the potential to
improve egg availability in
rural areas
Backyard
poultry
operations
Micro
franchising
Micro
financing
Co-
operative
farming
Enterprise
Developme
nt
Out-
grower
model
Model Characteristics
Flock size (no. of
birds per farm)
20 20 50 800 5000 5000
Productivity (eggs
per bird per year)
40 100 200 220 290 290
Mortality 60% 25% 20% 15% 7% 7%
Extent of bio-
security
Low Low Low Medium High High
Economic Characteristics
Start-up capital
required per farm
(US $)
10 70 600 2,500 30,000 30,000
Recurring capital
per laying cycle
(US $)
10 60 150 1,000 9,000 9,000
Each smallholder
farmer's net
annual income
(US $)
n/a 75 to 100 600
600 to
800
1,700
2,200
to
5,000*
Source: Beesabathuni K, Lingala S, Kraemer K. Increasing egg availability through smallholder business models in East
Africa and India. Matern Child Nutrition 2018;14(S3):e12667

Our solution to scale is an
egg hub - a centralized unit
supporting smallholder
and small scale farmers
with inputs, credit,
extension services and
market access.

Case Study: Chiyanjano
Program
Maya Stewart
Director, Lenziemill and Maeve Project
“Championing eggciting solutions for
smallholder poultry farmers in Malawi”

Lenziemill supports smallholder farmers to achieve commercial scale efficiency through an innovative
business model with exceptional results
The Challenges
• Predominant backyard farming is
riddled with high mortality and low
productivity
• Farm inputs are inaccessible; birds
get no vaccines and extremely poor
nutrition
• Eggs are rarely sold in markets at fair
prices due to inconsistent
production and no coordination
among farmers
• Smallholders cannot compete with
commercial scale farms on price,
quality or efficiency
Lenziemill supports the farmers through:
1. Innovative business model
a. 1200 bird farms
b. 3 year break even
c. Group of 5 farmers
2. Extension services
a. Theory + practical lessons
b. Weekly + emergency extension services
c. Progress monitoring
3. High quality input support
a. High performing point-of-lay birds
b. Feed as per specifications
c. Program specific vaccines
4. Consistent market support
a. Buy-back at wholesale rates
b. Demand creation

Farmers are organized into groups of 5, provided an input package, training, extension
services and market support to sell eggs.
Source: Beesabathuni K, Lingala S, Kraemer K. Increasing egg availability through smallholder business models in East
Africa and India. Matern Child Nutrition 2018;14(S3):e12667

11/1/2018
Alice Mombola and Magret Mathewe, participants of the
Chiyanjano program made a net profit of US $ 1,135 – nearly
2.3 times more than minimum wages

“Slowly by slowly
the egg will walk”

Nutritional Programs and Policies
Boitshepo Giyose
Senior Advisor, Nutrition, NEPAD
“An out of the box thinking in policy
and programme action is required for
livestock production, promotion and
consumption for improved dietary
diversity and nutrition”

What is needed?
1. A shift in policy outlook – beyond the traditional
staple food agriculture approach
2. Robust policies and programmes for dietary
diversity – including livestock
3. Policy reform and coherence across sectors
especially land, environment, agriculture, rural
economy, etc.
4. Investment in nutrition interventions, policy and
advocacy
5. Livestock products, especially in low income
countries where populations are nutritionally
vulnerable to fill the nutrient gap

Nutrition and Policy
Transformation – How?
• Transformation should be based on evidence
and nutrition challenges (context)
• Build capacity for livestock programmatic
actions and impact
• Improve technological innovation for better
production and processing methods to
add/retain nutritional value
• Sustainability – environmental, social and
economic

Actions for Policy Makers
Revise policies for balance and coherence
to include livestock
Promote advocacy for livestock production
and consumption
Invest in and support sustainable livestock
production considering
• Environmental concerns including climate change
• Societal and dietary concerns
• Economic returns

Q&A

Key Messages
Livestock-derived foods (eggs, milk and meat) can support nutrition in
the first 1,000 days of life, particularly in communities where diets are
suboptimal and non-diverse.
National governments and international decision makers should have
livestock development plans and nutritional targets.
Equitably increasing the availability and affordability of safe livestock-
derived foods in low- and middle-income countries, while respecting
national dietary preferences and social norms, can help tackle rising
global hunger.
Sustainable livestock production and its derived foods can make an important contribution to
meeting SDG 2. Livestock targeted investments could enable more equitable access to
nutritious foods.
Global livestock production has a significant environmental footprint. Measures to address
environmental sustainability should not compromise access to livestock-derived foods for
the most vulnerable

This presentation is licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.
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ILRI thanks all donors and organizations who globally supported its work through their contributions to the CGIAR system