Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

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Eggs: harnessing their power for the fight against hunger and malnutrition

Dear all,

In spite of the increasing prevalence of obesity and non-communicable diseases, undernutrition remains a critical issue for many of the world’s poorer countries. In each of Eastern and Southern Africa, Western and Central Africa, and South Asia, more than a third of children are stunted. In fact, nearly 151 million children under five in the world were still stunted in 2017. For many of these children, the poor growth which will blight their entire lives began in their mothers’ wombs. Poor quality food is one major contributor to poor growth both in the womb and during the vulnerable first years of life. But which foods should we be promoting to make a difference to these figures? And how should we go about making the most nutritious foods accessible to world’s poorest populations?

The humble egg seems increasingly likely to offer a practical and impactful opportunity to tackle these problems. Eggs are almost pure protein, of very high quality. They also provide virtually the entire Adequate Intake, for young children, of vitamin B12 and choline. The essential fatty acid content of eggs may be especially important in pregnancy. Nearly the whole world—with the notable exception of the vegetarian belt of India—likes to eat eggs, and they can be produced at prices which make them accessible even to the moderately poor.

Since the publication of a landmark trial last year (Iannotti, 2017), we have known that daily consumption of eggs can markedly improve the linear growth of young children. The journal Maternal and Child Nutrition has now published a special supplement, which summarises a wealth of additional information on the value of eggs and feasible ways of increasing access.

The first paper provides an overview of the role of eggs in the diet of maternal and child nutrition and updated data on egg consumption (Lutter et al., 2018) while the second summarizes how social marketing was used in a randomized controlled trial of eggs early in the complementary feeding period to foster high compliance, as well as empowerment of participants and policy change in Ecuador (Gallegos-Riofrio et al., 2018).

The third and fourth papers examine how a controlled intervention to foster poultry production affected child dietary diversity and nutritional status in Ghana (Marquis et al., 2018) and Zambia (Dumas et al., 2018) while the fifth paper reviews successes and lessons learned from a project on small-scale poultry production to increase egg production and household egg intake in four diverse African contexts (Nordhagen & Klemn, 2018).

A novel approach to use chicken eggshells to improve dietary calcium intake in rural sub-Saharan Africa is reported in the sixth paper (Bartter et al., 2018), while the seventh paper reports on business models for poultry production in East Africa and India (Beesathuni et al., 2018).

The multiple roles, systems and challenges and options for sustainable poultry production through a Planetary Health lens are reviewed in the eighth paper (Alders et al., 2018) and the supplement closes with a paper on how universal access to eggs might be achieved through large scale poultry production (Morris et al., 2018). 

Taking advantage of these latest studies, we would like to invite you to join a discussion around this important topic. Your experience and knowledge will be of great value to operationalize the findings and to raise awareness of the role that eggs can play in the fight against hunger and malnutrition.

  1. In order to increase access to eggs for the world’s poorer populations, what should be the right balance between small-scale production, large-scale commercial production, and long-distance trade? If countries do increasingly move towards large-scale production, how do we balance the interests of better nutrition with concerns about smallholder livelihoods?
  2. What are the different ways that we could increase demand for eggs, other than increasing availability and reducing price? What are some examples of successful initiatives?
  3. How can we mitigate the potential downsides of large-scale egg production on animal welfare and carbon emissions?
  4. What do we need different stakeholders (governments; private sector; academia; normative agencies) to do to accelerate access to eggs in poor communities?

We hope that you will find this interesting and look forward to receiving your thoughts and comments.

 

All the best

Saul Morris

Tim Lamber

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Dear All,

Dwelling on the prevailing discussion "increase access to eggs for the world’s poorer populations, what should be the right balance between small-scale production, large-scale commercial production. what is the way forward to achieve increase in egg production for better nutrition in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)'

Constraints to increased Egg production for Better Nutrition in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)

Eggs are a highly nutritious food, rich in Eessential Fatty Acids, vitamins A and B12, and bioavailable iron, zinc, and iodine. The protein in the albumen is abundant, digestible, and complete, and the whole food is naturally “packaged” in a protective “container.” With a few notable exceptions, it is a acceptable that almost all human populations enjoy eating them. They are uniquely positioned to advance the second of the world's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture (United Nations, 2015).

Consumption of eggs, however, falls far below optimal levels among mothers and children living in poorer countries especially in the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The level of production in this region is not adequate to provide needed nutrition for everybody especially the children and the mothers.  Eggs are cheap, relatively available, and frequently consumed by young children in high-and middle-income countries. However, they are expensive, scarce, and rarely consumed by children in much of Africa and South Asia.

Major barrier to increased egg production for better nutrition in SSA include the following

 (i) Low production

 (ii) Disease

 (iii) Nutrition, Housing and Incidence of Predation

(iv)Veterinary and intensive systems

Low Production: When considered the  conventional measures of productivity commonly used in the commercial poultry sector in both aspect of egg  and meat production,  such as feed conversion ratios or daily weight gain, local chicken breeds are low and slow producers of eggs and meat. This contributes to their low productivity when compared with the production in the commercialized poultry production setting.

Disease: The most common cause of the high mortality rates observed in Small -Scale Poultry (SSP) flocks, particularly in tropical countries, is Newcastle disease (ND) and Avian Influenza (AI).  The emergence of and response to Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), the H5N1 strain of avian influenza caused millions of birds to be culled after emerging in Africa in 2006-2008, and many countries in Africa have lost a large proportion of their egg production industry. This placed a heavy burden on SSP producers, directly, by the virtue of increased loss of birds, and indirectly, as initial control measures resulted in massive depopulation, often with inadequate or no compensation especially in the developing nations.

Nutrition, Housing and Incidence of Predation: Inability to provide adequate nutrition and presence of environmental stress coupled with the incidence of loss of chicks to predation are other notable factors that can contribute to reduction in the production of poultry products (especially eggs) in the SSA

Veterinary and Extension Services: Smallholder poultry farmers do not or have limited access to information on the “state of health” of their birds and how to cope with clinical signs and symptoms of diseases on their farm. This includes issues of adequate biosecurity practices, which is a major concern for small-scale intensive poultry producers. Inadequate essential resources and infrastructural facilities can result in limited veterinary and extension services.

Possible way forward

Establishment of “Egg Hubs” (Beesabathuni et al., 2018; Ymeri et al., 2017)

This is an innovation in which smallholder poultry (egg) farmers are organized into groups to facilitate input supply and better reap economies of scale. In this model, groups of five smallholder farmers constitute one group and are trained to operate a small‐scale farm with 5,000 birds, thereby simplifying supply chain coordination of inputs to the farm while also ensuring minimal losses in the transport of eggs to a market closest to the community.

Each farmer group has access to credit, building materials, cages, start‐up flock and relevant materials, biosecurity measures, protective clothing, and training in best practices. Several of these farms can be managed together as a hub. The hub acts as the aggregator of inputs and provides training, insurance, and credit to the farmer groups. For countries with large rural land areas, which, as we have seen, would require more than 200 hubs to ensure an egg for everyone, creating incentives for private companies to set up the hubs is the likely accelerated pathway to scale.

Eggs are one of our best tools to help end hunger, achieve food security, and improve nutrition. In order to reap the benefits of this opportunity, it is crucial that aggressive action be taken to increase and improve their availability and affordability in SSA. This can only be done by investing heavily in production systems that can bring down prices significantly across the entire economy, rather than focusing effort on limited benefits for individual farmers.

 

References

Ymeri, P., Sahiti, F., Musliu, A., Shaqiri, F., & Pllana, M. (2017). The effect of farm size on profitability of laying poultry farms in Kosovo. Bulgarian Journal of Agricultural Science, 23, 376–380.

Beesabathuni, K., Lingala, S., & Kraemer, K. (2018). Increasing egg availability through smallholder business models in East Africa and India. Maternal & Child Nutrition, 14(Suppl 3), e12667. https://doi.org/10.1111/mcn.12667

United Nations (2015). Transforming our world: The 2030 agenda for sustainable development (General Assembly Resolution A/70/L.1). Geneva, Switzerland: United Nations.

Hello Moderator.

Thank you for recognizing the need to discuss the egg as a powerful tool for mitigating poverty and malnutrition among the poor communities of the world.

I grew up in rural eastern Kenya where the egg was generally accepted as a currency.

Our parents would send us to the market to 'buy' basic household utilities; mostly salt, sugar, soap, kerosene, cooking oil and onions using eggs as currency.

At school we later came to learn about barter trade, though it wasn't the case here. Essentially eggs were treated as currency because the shopkeepers never used to cook and eat the eggs that they collected from us as it would have been the case in a true barter trade situation.

It's possible to bring the egg back to its rightful economic position in rural livelihoods not as a currency anymore but as a means of addressing malnutrition, unemployment and generating income for rural and urban even development.

This is achievable through the use of research based egg production systems with a corresponding creation of demand for the eggs through innovative and affordable food formulations. For example, the infusion of eggs into traditional dishes would go a long way in achieving this.

The challenge of generating green house gases would be addressed through the small-scale egg production approach which would disperse the the impact of the gases over a wide geographical area.

Above all this, there's urgent need to educate and sensitize the involved communities about the importance of the egg and its 'newly acquired socio-economic status' so that they don't end up selling eggs to buy low nutritional value food commodities as we did in the 1960s and 70s. 

We should work together towards making the egg to occupy it's rightful place among communities as a generator of currency and good health but never again as a currency itself.

Lawrence Matolo,

Machakos County,

Eastern Kenya.

Dear all, 

Responding to topic "Response on the different ways that we could increase demand for eggs, other than increasing availability and reducing price? What are some examples of successful initiatives?"

The consumption of eggs in Uganda has increased of recent because of formalising of "Rolex" in tourism industry as Peterson Kato Kikomeko noted . However, egg consumption is likely to drop because of the 'Fake eggs' that were found being sold on Ugandan markets . A case to mentions is chinese company that  was found selling fake eggs made from yet to be established chemicals by Uganda Government Analytitical Lababalary.  Unless quality standards of eggs in the markets are streamlined, fake eggs  will explode  the market since they are artificially made and sold at cheaper prices compared to normal eggs  and can sustainably meet the increasing demand of eggs by the local population.

Response on the different ways that we could increase demand for eggs, other than increasing availability and reducing price? What are some examples of successful initiatives?

1. Increase public awareness of the nutrition benefits of eggs. If more people know the nutrition benefits of eggs, the likelihood of consuming eggs are higher.

2. Promote consumption of egg-based dishes/meals; in Uganda, the government is promoting consumption of the "Rolex" which is basically an egg omelet wrapped in a chapati as part of the food tourism. This is indirectly increasing egg consumption

Thank you for the opportunity to co-facilitate this discussion and for your thoughtful contributions to date. Your comments have been great to read through.

Many of you have raised the issue of education, not only on the benefits of eggs, but also in the area of food skills. Although, as Dr. Hélène Delisle points out, scientific evidence has now proven that eggs do not increase the risk for CVD, there remains an important opportunity to educate governments, health professionals and consumers in this area, and to highlight the many nutritional benefits and high quality protein of eggs.

The examples given by Rabiu Auwalu Yakasai of the FEED program and the stories shared by Teopista Mutesi of the FAO poultry project illustrate the powerful impact that skills development and knowledge transfer can have on improving nutritional status. Please continue to share your success stories and lessons learned towards similar projects.

The International Egg Foundation, in partnership with local communities, seeks to increase both egg production and consumption. One example is the work with Heart for Africa, where a newly-constructed egg farm in Swaziland is adding a sustainable source of protein to more than 888,000 meals per year. In Uganda, a local contact works with children to develop the skills to care for hens and later build the skills to manage a small business. The project provides families with a sustainable source of protein and the opportunity to expand their efforts.

Much like these projects there is an opportunity to share knowledge and evident-based research to strengthen farming practices. For example, in Canada, Codes of Practice and nationally developed guidelines serve the foundation for ensuring hens are cared for using practices that promote animal health and welfare. There are also a number of well documented research studies that discuss a host of welfare factors in egg production. Forum participants may like to refer to the Wageningen University and Research Institute’s LayWel study, or the Coalition for Sustainable Egg Supply study that analysed animal health and well-being, food safety and quality, environment, worker health and safety, and food affordability.

On the topic of sustainable egg production, researchers in both Europe and North America are helping producers make sustainability improvements. These studies offer important information that reduce the environmental footprint of egg production, while producing more eggs with fewer resources. These tools deliver practical and impactful opportunities to tackle environmental challenges. While these results are positive, there remains an important opportunity to share these insights more widely. I am very interested in your thoughts on new areas to explore when it comes to sustainable egg production.

I look forward to reading through more contributions highlighting ongoing projects, successes and challenges with making eggs more accessible. Thank you again for your thoughts.

Dr. Akhila Vasan

GMA Science and Education Foundation
United States of America

Eggs (similar to milk) are nutritionally dense and can be affordable, thus supporting the goal of reducing food security.

1. Food Safety is a fundamental basis for ensuring access to safe eggs, so having proper procedures in place to prevent avian diseases as well as bacterial contamination should be addressed.

From the perspective of increasing access:

1. Both small holder farms/household farms as well as large scale in country producers can support access to eggs. With small scale and household farms, this can be a means of women's empowerment, and thus lead to a continuous resource. For large scale production, the government working together with private sector can produce subsidized eggs for those in need. Furthermore, children can gain access to eggs as a nutritionally dense food at mid-day meals or similar programs. This could also be an added benefit where children are more likely to attend school due to access to food (most likely their only meal for the day). In terms of trade, the political environment in the region will also need to be considered before developing the egg supply chain. An example of how the balance between large and small scale production can work, can be borrowed from the dairy industry. Small holders continue to produce milk but supply the milk to bulk tanks, and a similar model can also be used for eggs to support both small holder and larger scale operations. That would also ensure sustainability of the larger operations thus ensuring continued interest. If the model is not self-sustaining, it will fail.

2. To increase demand for eggs, incorporating cultural and flavor preferences and using the community (elders/leaders/religious heads) to support the initiative will help. Let's face it, eggs while nutritionally dense, can also be a blank slate for flavors.

3. Having different players at the table (PPP), and involving government, academia/NGOs/religious institutions, and industry (egg producers, chicken feed, etc.) to build the solution together will help ensure buy in. Initial seed funding, along with support from different stakeholders helps to ensure that the solution works for everyone AND is addressing the problem.

Eggs indeed are relatively cheaper and ready-to-use high quality food for all ages. Consumption of eggs in rural population however, has decreased over last 3-4 decades, implying that 3/4th of world population has now limited access to this high quality food 'Capsule'. This decrease in consumption of egg can be attributed to:

i. Significant drop in backyard poultry farming- many of the rural poultry breeds have become extinct over time.

ii. Displacement of rural poultry by commercial farming.

iii. Lack of aesthetic taste in commercial eggs viz a viz backyard poultry eggs

iv. Cost of commercial eggs, as compared to 'home-grown' eggs- backyard farming produce

On the other hand, consumption of eggs has increased in urban settings, because of inter alia:

i. Readily available commercial eggs at relatively cheaper price, compared to backyard farming produce, which fetch higher price because of its aesthetic values (both taste and color).

ii. Use of eggs in multiple dishes and baking products.

Given that 3/4th of world population resides in rural areas, and that egg consumption has dropped in these areas, it could be one of the contributory factors towards growing malnutrition and consequent upon increased stunting among developing regions of the world.

'An egg a day' campaign in Schools and egg-based daily food supplementation for pregnant and lactating mothers can help improve the nutritional health especially of women and children.

Promotion of Good Poultry Husbandry Practices and value chain & SPS management can help contain the health risks associated with egg consumption.

Value chain development in egg sector can help reduce the cost of egg products, and increase in its consumption.

Manipulation of poultry feeding- through informed nutrition can help in mitigation of GHGs emission from factory poultry farming.

In Tamil Nadu, India, mid-day meal is provided to kids, especially those from poor families, in government schools. In this scheme, one egg is provided to each child every day on school days (Monday to Friday only). It has been found the health of the children taking eggs in mid-day meals has proved significantly. Eggs can rove nutrition of poor kids and their parents, if they can afford them. To keep the access of eggs to the poor, the price of egges must be as low as possible. 

To keep the price of eggs low, the feed cost must be either kept low by innovative methods (e.g., converting food wastes into poultry feed) or egg price must be subsidized by local governments to improve the nutrition of the poor. Afterall, the food and nutrition security of people, especially the poor, is a key responsibility of the local and or national governments.   

Teopista Mutesi

FAO
Rwanda

Dear FSN moderator,

Thank you for this forum which I believe is very relevant as regards to ending malnutrition.

As a communications officer who have been to the field where FAO has implemented the poultry  project in Rwanda, I have heard amazing testimonies of families with malnourished children who have been  fed on eggs and the results have been impressive.

Kindly find links to some of the stories I have covered touching also on the benefits of eating eggs  for children with malnutrition.

STORY 1: Victor Gashema has been providing eggs to the health centre in his area and has seen many malnourished children coming out the red line. The subtitle on eggs is towards the end of this article: https://bit.ly/2CSefD2

STORY 2: Annociata Benimana had a malnourished child but after joining FAO's poultry project she fed the child on eggs and the status improved.

“I had gone for a mandatory child nutrition test at the health centre, when I was told that my child exhibited signs of stunting,” says Benimana Annociata, a mother of five children. The story is on page 5: bit.ly/2HPdrya

Thank you,

Teopista