Maternal and child under-nutrition resulting in childhood stunting remains prevalent in east Africa, leading to increased disease risk, limiting cognitive development, and impeding human capital accumulation that constrains individuals, communities, and nations from reaching their full potential. In a western Kenyan population with a high prevalence of childhood stunting, frequency of milk consumption has been shown to increase monthly height gain in children, indicating the potential to improve health through livestock productivity. However, calving rates remain low, constraining the availability of milk to the household. Here we model average herd-level calving intervals and its relation to milk yield and nutrition in the context of an agricultural household production model, applying a dynamic panel econometric approach to household level data. We provide evidence that targeted on-farm specialization leads to significantly higher calving rates and shorter calving intervals, which in turn predictably increase milk production. Importantly, we show that the positive link between calving and household milk nutrition is present across households that primarily consume milk produced on-farm (“producer-consumers”) and those that predominantly purchase milk (“milk buyers”), indicating that efforts to improve herd fertility in western Kenya could improve food security on a community scale.

中文翻译：

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将产犊间隔与肯尼亚的产奶量和家庭营养联系起来

导致儿童发育迟缓的母婴营养不足在东非仍然普遍存在，导致疾病风险增加，限制认知发展，阻碍人力资本积累，从而限制个人、社区和国家充分发挥其潜力。在儿童发育迟缓发病率高的肯尼亚西部人口中，牛奶消费频率已被证明可以增加儿童每月的身高增长，这表明通过牲畜生产力改善健康的潜力。然而，产犊率仍然很低，限制了家庭的牛奶供应。在这里，我们在农业家庭生产模型的背景下对平均畜群水平的产犊间隔及其与产奶量和营养的关系进行建模，将动态面板计量经济学方法应用于家庭水平数据。我们提供的证据表明，有针对性的农场专业化可显着提高产犊率和更短的产犊间隔，从而可预见地增加产奶量。重要的是，我们表明产犊和家庭牛奶营养之间存在正相关关系，这些家庭主要消费农场生产的牛奶（“生产者 - 消费者”）和主要购买牛奶的家庭（“牛奶买家”），表明努力提高肯尼亚西部的畜群生育率可以在社区范围内改善粮食安全。