Effect of Feed-Health Intervention for Improved Small Ruminant Production on Gender and Household Nutrition in Northern Ghana

Abstract

Under the feed and health intervention study for improved, small-ruminant production in nine intervention communities in three regions of Northern Ghana, data has been collected on animal performance (average daily gain, flock dynamics), manure production (both quantity and quality), and cost and benefit, which covers the productivity, environmental,and economic domains of the sustainable intensification assessment framework. Necessary data has not been collected for the human and social domains regarding this feed-health intervention. The objective of this study was to collect data on the human and social domains to ensure that missing gaps that address these issues for smallholder farmers are highlighted to allow for subsequent interventions in the future to improve small-ruminant production or follow-on studies. This study entailed developing short survey instruments to collect data on how the feed-health intervention impacts on household food security and nutrition, and gender in terms of household labor distribution for the management of small ruminants, and benefit sharing from improved small ruminant production. The same households in the nine communities, ninety in total, involved in the feed-health intervention study conducted between 2015 and 2017 were involved in the study. The objective of this study was to collect additional data on social and human domains to assess the feed-health intervention based on the five domains of the sustainable intensification assessment framework.