London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Agriculture has the potential to make substantial and sustainable contributions to improving human nutrition. Despite many decades of research and well-described impact pathways, further evidence is needed to demonstrate the effectiveness of agricultural interventions on nutritional outcomes. This presentation will review some of the key nutritional challenges in sub-Saharan Africa, with a focus on young children in villages of Central Tanzania. Julia will use her doctoral research as a case study to discuss considerations in nutrition-sensitive agricultural programmes, and present findings from a longitudinal study linking chicken-keeping with children’s diets and growth.

Julia joined the Natural Resources Institute as a Lecturer/ Researcher in Nutrition in early 2018, after completing her doctoral research in food and nutrition security at the University of Sydney. Her thesis used qualitative and quantitative approaches to evaluate the potential for chicken-keeping to sustainably improve the dietary adequacy and growth of young children in villages of Tanzania. Julia has previously worked as a veterinarian in Australia, the United Kingdom and on poultry health programmes in sub-Saharan Africa.