Cow Ownership Research

In this paper,the authors test hypothesis that cow ownership has a large and positive impact on milk consumption and growth of children. They use a survey of households in 305 higher potential villages in the Ethiopian highlands and the dairy sector in rural Ethiopia. It highlights a context where the markets are very thin,own consumption shares are high and milk is an important source of animal based proteins and nutrients for young children.Cattle are a source of dairy products and the Ethiopian highlands are full of pastoralist and agro-pastoralist systems in which the cattle products are the sources of both income and consumption. Hoddinott et al (2014) argue why dairy cows are an important agricultural asset in terms of nutritional benefits

They state “…household ownership of just a single cow predicts an increase in HAZ scored of anywhere between 0.25 and 0.47 standard deviations. They further add on that “…few villages that have a sizeable market within their villages,household cow ownership has no impact on linear growth…high levels of village cow ownership has positive effects on milk consumption and linear growth…”Using their household survey data, Hoddinott et al (2014) find out that milk is one of the most important sources of animal-based protein for young children according to their figures. Milk was consumed often at an average of 5.44 of the past seven days followed by pulses,cheese and yogurt then eggs and

They critically discuss why households continue to invest in livestock even after yielding negative returns. In their attempt to examine the returns from owning cows and buffaloes, Anagol et al (2013) considered annual input and output variables like folder costs, veterinary costs, labor costs, value of milk, value of calves and value of adult animal. According to statistical tests done by Anagol et al (2014),there are no differences between cows and buffaloes with regard to inputs like labor hours,veterinary and insemination expenses and there arebetween -38% and 20% returns from buffaloes and -9% to 21% from cows in connection to the profits gained. Most of the results show a negative