Small-scale egg production centres increase children's egg consumption in rural Zambia

Abstract

Animal source foods can efficiently enhance dietary quality, but they remain inaccessible and unaffordable for many women and young children in remote, low-income communities. We piloted an intervention in which 20 groups established egg production centres (EPCs) in their rural Zambian communities to increase the availability of eggs in the local food system. In a repeated cross-sectional design over 1 year (midline [4 months after the start of egg production] and endline [11 months]), we evaluated programme impact on household egg acquisition within those communities and on egg consumption and height-for-age z score (HAZ) among young children (6-36 months) using multilevel linear, logistic, and truncated negative binomial regression techniques. At midline, households in project areas were significantly more likely to consume eggs than those in control areas (OR 2.08, 95% CI [1.56, 2.78]), particularly those located within 250 m of the EPC. Similarly, children living in project communities were significantly more likely to consume eggs at midline than those in control areas (OR 5.53, 95% CI [2.90, 10.58]). Although increased over baseline, egg acquisition and consumption decreased by endline because of depressed egg production over time. There was no impact on children's HAZ, likely because of the short follow-up time and relatively modest "dose" of egg consumption. Although productivity can be improved, the EPC programme offers a novel approach to improving access to eggs in rural communities, and optimization of the production practices and marketing is needed to ensure that egg consumption translates to improved dietary quality, growth, and health.

Keywords: animal source foods; child nutrition; eggs; food systems; nutrition-sensitive agriculture; stunting.

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Figures

Figure 1

(a) Predicted probability and 95% confidence intervals of household egg acquisition in the 7 days prior to the survey in project (solid navy) and control (dashed grey) communities. (b) Predicted probability and 95% confidence intervals of household egg acquisition in the 7 days prior to the survey in households in project communities within 250 m of an egg production centre (EPC) (solid navy), in households in project communities greater than 250 m from an EPC (dotted maroon), and control (dashed grey) communities with no EPC

Figure 2

Total number of eggs produced per month in 16 egg production centres (EPCs). Production data excludes the four EPCs in Mwanya, for which insufficient records were available. Anecdotally, three of these four EPCs had very low production throughout the year. Arrows indicate the months that midline and endline surveys were conducted

Figure 3

(a) Predicted probability and 95% confidence intervals of any child egg consumption in the 7 days prior to the survey in project (solid navy) and control (dashed grey) communities. (b) Among those consuming any eggs, predicted number of times children consumed eggs in the 7 days prior to the survey, in project and control communities