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    Better soils for healthier lives? An econometric assessment of the link between soil nutrients and malnutrition in sub-Saharan Africa

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    U19ArtBerkhoutSoilsInthomNodev.pdf (1.592Mb)
    Date
    2019-01-17
    Author
    Berkhout, E.D.
    Malan, M.
    Kram, T.
    Type
    Journal Article
    Target Audience
    Scientists
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Abstract/Description
    Malnutrition, the suboptimal consumption of essential nutrients like zinc, severely affects human health. This burden of malnutrition falls disproportionally heavy on developing countries, directly increasing child mortality and childhood stunting, or reducing people’s ability mending diseases. One option to combat malnutrition is to blend missing nutrients in crop fertilizers, thereby increasing crop yields and possibly the nutrient density in harvested crop products, thus enriching crop products destined for human consumption. But, the effectiveness of so-called agronomic fortification remains ill-understood, primarily due to a paucity of field trials. We hypothesize that, if at all this is an effective strategy, there should exist a causal link between malnutrition and natural variation in the quality of soils to begin with. Until now, data limitations prevented the establishment of such a link, but new soil micronutrient maps for Sub-Saharan Africa allow for a detailed assessment. In doing so, we find statistically significant relations between soil nutrients and child mortality, stunting, wasting and underweight. For instance, a simultaneous increase in soil densities of copper, manganese and zinc by one standard deviation reduces child mortality by 4–6 per mille points, but only when malaria pressure is modest. The effects of soil nutrients on health dissipate when malaria pressure increases. Yet, the effects are fairly small in magnitude suggesting that except for a few regions, agronomic fortification is a relatively cost ineffective means to combat malnutrition.
    https://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal. pone.0210642
    Multi standard citation
    Permanent link to this item
    https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12478/5193
    Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
    https://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal. pone.0210642
    Research Themes
    NUTRITION & HUMAN HEALTH
    IITA Subjects
    Nutrition; Soil Health
    Agrovoc Terms
    Malnutrition; Nutrients; Supply; Soil Deficiencies; Health
    Regions
    Africa South Of Sahara
    Journals
    PLOS ONE
    Collections
    • Journal and Journal Articles5286
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