Livestock Management, Human Health and Welfare in Agricultural Households

Haseeb Ahmed

Farm-households face substantial livestock as well as human health risk. Biotechnology adoption for disease control and other management practices can affect livestock disease outcomes and welfare of a farm-household; while financial technology adoption can help in alleviating credit constraints through facilitation of formal and informal transactions and smooth consumption during income shocks. The second and third chapters of the dissertation examine the relationships between livestock management practices and household welfare, while the fourth chapter examines the impact of mobile money technology on risk-sharing during illness periods. The second chapter models the relationships between communal grazing, disease transmission risk and antimicrobial use, and derives testable hypothesis about these relationships. Regression results suggest that history of disease and communal grazing are associated with higher subjective disease risk and greater antimicrobial use. The implications of these results are discussed in light of the potential for higher inter-herd disease transmission rates among communal grazers and potential contributions to antimicrobial resistance due to antimicrobial use. The third chapter examines the relationships between livestock disease outcomes and vaccinations and herd restocking decisions. The main findings are: (i) herd owners restock in response to livestock death, but replacement is less than one-for-one, and herd owners tend to replace cattle lost to disease-related death with sheep and goats; (ii) restocking is a contributor to higher livestock disease death and abortions, presumably through inter-herd disease transmission; (iii) vaccinations reduce disease deaths, implying that vaccination availability and use may improve herd and household welfare. The fourth chapter explores the effects of mobile money technology adoption on consumption smoothing and healthcare use in the face of a negative health shock. Results suggest that mobile money, through increased informal lending, helps households utilize more healthcare services in terms of visits to a clinic, consultation and medication expenditures, in comparison with the non-users of this technology. This better utilization of healthcare services may result in better health and poverty reduction in a meaningful way. These effects can be explained by the decrease in transaction costs related to borrowing and lending and ease of risk sharing due to the use of this technology.

Livestock Management, Human Health and Welfare in Agricultural Households

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