Abstract
We examine the relationships between climatic conditions, breastfeeding behavior, and maternal time use in Ethiopia. Infant feeding practices are important predictors of child nutrition that may be affected by a number of factors including mother’s time engaging in agricultural labor, food security, cultural beliefs, and antenatal care. We use panel data from the Living Standards Measurement Study to investigate linkages between climatic conditions during a child’s first year of life and year prior to birth and duration of exclusive breastfeeding. We then explore one potential mechanism: women’s agricultural labor. Results indicate that rainfall during the primary agricultural season—kiremt—in a child’s first year of life plays an important role in duration of exclusive breastfeeding. Experiencing 25 cm of average monthly kiremt rainfall, versus 5 cm, is associated with a 20-percentage-point decrease in the likelihood of being exclusively breastfed for the recommended 6 months. More kiremt rainfall is associated with a greater number of days that women spend planting and harvesting, and at high levels of rainfall women with infants do not engage in significantly fewer days of agricultural labor than those without infants. Lastly, we find that during the year before birth, greater rainfall during kiremt as well as the dry season is associated with a lower likelihood of 6 months of exclusive breastfeeding, potentially due to the early introduction of complementary foods. Our findings indicate that agricultural labor demands may in part drive breastfeeding behaviors, leading to “sub-optimal” feeding practices in the short-term, but resulting in improved household food security in the longer-term.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abate, K. H., & Belachew, T. (2017). Care and not wealth is a predictor of wasting and stunting of ‘The Coffee Kids’ of Jimma Zone, Southwest Ethiopia. Nutrition and Health, 23(3), 193–202. https://doi.org/10.1177/0260106017706253.
Alderman, H., Hoddinott, J., & Kinsey, B. (2006). Long term consequences of early childhood malnutrition. Oxford Economic Papers, 58(3), 450–474. https://doi.org/10.1093/oep/gpl008.
Alebel, A., Tesma, C., Temesgen, B., Ferede, A., & Kibret, G. D. (2018). Exclusive breastfeeding practice in Ethiopia and its association with antenatal care and institutional delivery: a systematic review and meta-analysis. International Breastfeeding Journal BioMed Central Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13006-018-0173-x.
Arora, D., & Rada, C. (2013). Gender differences in time and resource allocation in rural households in Ethiopia. Pap Prep Annu Conf Am Econ Assoc Retrieved 25 July 2015, 1970, 1–23. http://www.aeaweb.org/aea/2014conference/program/retrieve.php?pdfid=421.
Asemahagn, M. A. (2016). Determinants of exclusive breastfeeding practices among mothers in azezo district, northwest Ethiopia. International Breastfeeding Journal, 11(1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13006-016-0081-x.
Bell, A., Ward, P., Tamal, M. E. H., & Killilea, M. (2019). Assessing recall bias and measurement error in high-frequency social data collection for human-environment research. Population and Environment, 40(3), 325–345. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11111-019-0314-1.
Bezabih, M., & Di Falco, S. (2012). Rainfall variability and food crop portfolio choice: evidence from Ethiopia. Food Secur, 4(4), 557–567. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-012-0219-7.
Bhattacharjee, N. V., Schaeffer, L. E., Marczak, L. B., Ross, J. M., Swartz, S. J., Albright, J., et al. (2019). Mapping exclusive breastfeeding in Africa between 2000 and 2017. Nature Medicine, 25(8), 1205–1212. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-019-0525-0.
Black, R. E., Allen, L. H., Bhutta, Z. A., Caulfield, L. E., de Onis, M., Ezzati, M., et al. (2008). Maternal and child undernutrition: global and regional exposures and health consequences. Lancet. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(07)61690-0.
Burns, J., Emerson, J. A., Amundson, K., Doocy, S., Caulfield, L. E., & Klemm, R. D. W. (2016). A qualitative analysis of barriers and facilitators to optimal breastfeeding and complementary feeding practices in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo. Food and Nutrition Bulletin, 37(2), 119–131. https://doi.org/10.1177/0379572116637947.
Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia (CSA). (2012). Ethiopia Rural Socioeconomic Survey.
Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia (CSA). (2014). Ethiopia Socioeconomic Survey 2013–2014.
Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia (CSA). (2016). Ethiopia Socioeconomic Survey,Wave 3 (ESS3) 2015–2016. Public Use Dataset.
Chotard, S., Mason, J. B., Oliphant, N. P., Mebrahtu, S., & Hailey, P. (2011). Fluctuations in wasting in vulnerable child populations in the Greater Horn of Africa. Food and Nutrition Bulletin, 32(3 SUPPL.), S219–S233. https://doi.org/10.1177/15648265100313S302.
Conway, D., & Schipper, E. L. F. (2011). Adaptation to climate change in Africa: challenges and opportunities identified from Ethiopia. Global Environmental Change, 21(1), 227–237.
Dearden, K. A., Quan, L. N., Do, M., Marsh, D. R., Pachón, H., Schroeder, D. G., & Lang, T. T. (2002). Work outside the home is the primary barrier to exclusive breastfeeding in rural Viet Nam: insights from mothers who exclusively breastfed and worked. Food and Nutrition Bulletin, 23(4 SUPP), 101–108. https://doi.org/10.1177/15648265020234s214.
del Ninno, C., & Lundberg, M. (2005). Treading water. The long-term impact of the1998 flood on nutrition in Bangladesh. Economics and Human Biology, 3(1), 67-96 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ehb.2004.12.002.
Dewey, K. G., & Begum, K. (2011). Long-term consequences of stunting in early life. Maternal and Child Nutrition, 7(SUPPL. 3), 5–18. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1740-8709.2011.00349.x.
Egata, G., Berhane, Y., & Worku, A. (2013). Predictors of non-exclusive breastfeeding at 6 months among rural mothers in east Ethiopia: a community-based analytical cross-sectional study. International Breastfeeding Journal, 8(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1186/1746-4358-8-8.
Evangelista, P., Young, N., & Burnett, J. (2013). How will climate change spatially affect agriculture production in Ethiopia? Case studies of important cereal crops. Climatic Change. http://link.springer.com/article/. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-013-0776-6.
Evans School Policy Analysis and Research Group. (2019). Agricultural Development Data Curation. https://evans.uw.edu/policy-impact/epar/agricultural-development-data-curation.
Ethiopia at a glance. http://www.fao.org/ethiopia/fao-in-ethiopia/ethiopia-at-a-glance/en/.
Fazzini, M., Bisci, C., & Billi, P. (2015). The climate of Ethiopia. In P. Billi (Ed.), Landscapes Landforms Ethiop (pp. 65–87). New York: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8026-1_3.
FEWS NET. (2013). Ethiopia—seasonal calendar. http://www.fews.net/east-africa/ethiopia/seasonal-calendar/december-2013.
Funk, C., Pedreros, D., & Korecha, D. (2019). Declines in Ethiopia’s Belg growing season rainfall and length of season. Climate Hazards Center Blog. http://blog.chg.ucsb.edu/?p=615.
Funk, C., Peterson, P., Landsfeld, M., Pedreros, D., Verdin, J., & Shukla, S. (2015). The climate hazards infrared precipitation with stations—a new environmental record for monitoring extremes. Scientific Data, 2, 150066. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2015.66.
Funk, C., Rowland, J., Eilerts, G., Kebebe, E., Biru, N., White, L., & Galu, G. (2012). A climate trend analysis of Ethiopia. Washington, DC.
Grace, K., Lerner, A. M., Mikal, J., & Sangli, G. (2017). A qualitative investigation of childbearing and seasonal hunger in peri-urban Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Population Environment, 38(4), 369–380. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11111-016-0268-5.
Grace, K., & Mikal, J. (2019). Incorporating qualitative methodologies and fieldwork into large scale, quantitative analyses of climate health in low-income countries. Lancet Planet Heal, 3(12), e496–e498. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(19)30240-2.
Grace, K., Nagle, N. N., Burgert-Brucker, C. R., Rutzick, S., Van Riper, D. C., Dontamsetti, T., & Croft, T. (2019). Integrating environmental context into DHS analysis while protecting participant confidentiality: a new remote sensing method. Population and Development Review, 45(1), 197–218. https://doi.org/10.1111/padr.12222.
Gray, S. J. (1995). Correlates of breastfeeding frequency among nomadic pastoralists of Turkana, Kenya: a retrospective study. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 98(3), 239–255. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.1330980302.
Hadgu, G., Tesfaye, K., & Mamo, G. (2015). Analysis of climate change in Northern Ethiopia: implications for agricultural production. Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 121(3–4), 733–747. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-014-1261-5.
Hoddinott, J., Behrman, J. R., Maluccio, J. A., Melgar, P., Quisumbing, A. R., Ramirez-Zea, M., et al. (2013). Adult consequences of growth failure in early childhood. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 98(5), 1170–1178. https://doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.113.064584.
Hoddinott, J., & Kinsey, B. (2001). Child growth in the time of drought. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 63(4), 409–436. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0084.t01-1-00227.
Hoddinott, J., Maluccio, J. A., Behrman, J. R., Flores, R., & Martorell, R. (2008). Effect of a nutrition intervention during early childhood on economic productivity in Guatemalan adults. Lancet, 371(9610), 411–416. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(08)60205-6.
Horii, N., Guyon, A. B., & Quinn, V. J. (2011). Determinants of delayed initiation of breastfeeding in rural Ethiopia: programmatic implications. Food and Nutrition Bulletin, 32(2), 94–102. https://doi.org/10.1177/156482651103200203.
Jones, A. D., Cruz Agudo, Y., Galway, L., Bentley, J., & Pinstrup-Andersen, P. (2012). Heavy agricultural workloads and low crop diversity are strong barriers to improving child feeding practices in the Bolivian Andes. Social Science and Medicine, 75(9), 1673–1684. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2012.06.025.
Kamudoni, P., Maleta, K., Shi, Z., & Holmboe-Ottesen, G. (2015). Exclusive breastfeeding duration during the first 6 months of life is positively associated with length-for-age among infants 6–12 months old, in Mangochi district, Malawi. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 69(1), 96–101. https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2014.148.
Kuchenbecker, J., Jordan, I., Reinbott, A., Herrmann, J., Jeremias, T., Kennedy, G., et al. (2015). Exclusive breastfeeding and its effect on growth of malawian infants: results from a cross-sectional study. Paediatr Int Child Health, 35(1), 14–23. https://doi.org/10.1179/2046905514Y.0000000134.
Levine, N. E. (1988). Women’s work and infant feeding: a case from Rural Nepal. Ethnology, 27(3), 231. https://doi.org/10.2307/3773519.
Li, L., Li, W., Ballard, T., Sun, G., & Jeuland, M. (2016). CMIP5 model simulations of Ethiopian Kiremt-season precipitation: current climate and future changes. Climate Dynamics, 46(9–10), 2883–2895. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-015-2737-4.
Machado Mendes, D., & Paglietti, L. (2015). Ethiopia irrigation market brief. Rome. www.fao.org/investment/en.
Meehan, C. L., & Roulette, J. W. (2013). Early supplementary feeding among central African foragers and farmers: a biocultural approach. Social Science and Medicine, 96, 112–120. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.07.029.
Nankumbi, J., & Muliira, J. K. (2015). Barriers to infant and child-feeding practices: a qualitative study of primary caregivers in Rural Uganda. Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition, 33(1), 106–16. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25995727.
National Meteorological Services Agency. (2005). Seasonal agro meteorological bulletin, Bega, 2004/05. Addis Ababa.
Palacios-Lopez, A., Christiaensen, L., & Kilic, T. (2017). How much of the labor in African agriculture is provided by women? Food Policy, 67, 52–63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2016.09.017.
Perez-Heydrich, C., Warren, J. L., Burget, C. R., Emch, M. E., On, G., Use, T. H. E., & Data, D. H. S. G. P. S. (2013). Guidelines on the use of DHS GPS data. Spatial Analysis Reports No. 8. www.measuredhs.com.
Philip, S., Kew, S. F., Jan van Oldenborgh, G., Otto, F., O’Keefe, S., Haustein, K., et al. (2018). Attribution analysis of the Ethiopian drought of 2015. Journal of Climate, 31(6), 2465–2486. https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-17-0274.1.
Porter, J. R., Xie, L., Challinor, A. J., Cochrane, K., Howden, S. M., & Iqbal, M. M. (2014). Food security and food production systems. In L. L. W. Field, C. B., V. R. Barros, D. J. Dokken, K. J. Mach, M. D. Mastrandrea, T. E. Bilir, M. Chatterjee, K. L. Ebi, Y. O. Estrada, R. C. Genova, B. Girma, E. S. Kissel, A. N. Levy, S. MacCracken, P. R. Mastrandrea (Eds.), Clim Chang 2014 Impacts, Adapt Vulnerability Part A Glob Sect Asp Contrib Work Gr II to Fifth Assess Rep Intergov Panel Clim Chang (pp. 485–533). Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=aJ-TBQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA1142&dq=Climate+Change+2014:+Impacts,+Adaptation,+and+Vulnerability&ots=v0RAQL9dHz&sig=dDMX2bOnwcZ3zOrWKGZP9RUAGUg.
Randell, H., Gray, C., & Grace, K. (2020). Stunted from the Start: early life weather conditions and child undernutrition in Ethiopia. Social Science & Medicine, 261.
Robles, P. (2010). Gender disparities in time allocation, time poverty, and labor allocation across employment sectors in Ethiopia. In J. S. Arbache, A. Kolev, & E. Filipiak (Eds.), Gend Disparities Africa’s Labor Mark. Washington, DC: The World Bank.
Rodriguez-Llanes, J. M., Ranjan-Dash, S., Degomme, O., Mukhopadhyay, A., & Guha-Sapir, D. (2011). Child malnutrition and recurrent flooding in rural eastern India: a community-based survey. British Medical Journal Open, 1(2), e000109–e000109. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2011-000109.
Rogers, N. L., Abdi, J., Moore, D., & Nd’Iangui, S., Smith, L. J., Carlson, A. J., & Carlson, D. (2011). Colostrum avoidance, prelacteal feeding and late breast-feeding initiation in rural Northern Ethiopia. Public Health Nutrition, 14(11), 2029–2036. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1368980011000073.
Rosales-Rueda, M. (2018). The impact of early life shocks on human capital formation: evidence from El Niño floods in Ecuador. Journal of Health Economics, 62, 13–44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhealeco.2018.07.003.
Saha, K. K., Frongillo, E. A., Alam, D. S., Arifeen, S. E., Persson, L. Å., & Rasmussen, K. M. (2008). Household food security is associated with infant feeding practices in rural Bangladesh. Journal of Nutrition, 138(7), 1383–1390. https://doi.org/10.1093/jn/138.7.1383.
Schuster, R. C., Butler, M. S., Wutich, A., Miller, J. D., & Young, S. L. (2020). “If there is no water, we cannot feed our children”: the far-reaching consequences of water insecurity on infant feeding practices and infant health across 16 low- and middle-income countries. American Journal of Human Biology, 32(1). https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.23357.
Seleshi, Y., & Zanke, U. (2004). Recent changes in rainfall and rainy days in Ethiopia. International Journal of Climatology, 24(8), 973–983.https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.1052.
Sellen, D. W. (2001). Weaning, complementary feeding, and maternal decision making in a rural East African pastoral population. Journal of Human Lactation, 17(3), 233–244. https://doi.org/10.1177/089033440101700307.
Sheffield, J., Goteti, G., & Wood, E. F. (2006). Development of a 50-year high-resolution global dataset of meteorological forcings for land surface modeling. Journal of Climate, 19(13), 3088–3111. https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI3790.1.
Thai, T. Q., & Myrskylä, M. (2012). Rainfall shocks, parental behavior and breastfeeding: evidence from rural Vietnam. http://www.demogr.mpg.de.
Turin, C. G., & Ochoa, T. J. (2014). The role of maternal breast milk in preventing infantile diarrhea in the developing world. Current Tropical Medicine Reports, 1(2), 97–105. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40475-014-0015-x.
UNICEF, WHO, & World Bank Group. (2017). Levels and trends in child malnutrition. https://www.who.int/nutgrowthdb/jme_brochoure2017.pdf.
USAID. (2014). Ethiopia: nutrition profile background. Washington, DC. https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1864/USAID-Ethiopia-Profile.pdf.
USAID, & Government of Ethiopia. (2010). An Atlas of Ethiopian Livelihoods. Addis Ababa.
Victora, C. G., Adair, L., Fall, C., Hallal, P. C., Martorell, R., Richter, L., & Sachdev, H. S. (2008). Maternal and child undernutrition: consequences for adult health and human capital. Lancet, 371(9609), 340–357. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(07)61692-4.
Viste, E., Korecha, D., & Sorteberg, A. (2013). Recent drought and precipitation tendencies in Ethiopia. Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 112(3–4), 535–551. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-012-0746-3.
Webb-Girard, A., Cherobon, A., Mbugua, S., Kamau-Mbuthia, E., Amin, A., & Sellen, D. W. (2012). Food insecurity is associated with attitudes towards exclusive breastfeeding among women in urban Kenya. Maternal & Child Nutrition, 8(2), 199–214. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1740-8709.2010.00272.x.
WHO. (2018). Breastfeeding. WHO. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/nutrition/topics/exclusive_breastfeeding/en/.
Acknowledgements
An earlier version of this paper was presented at the conference on Demographic Responses to Changes in the Natural Environment held at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, supported in part by a grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute on Child Health and Human Development (R13 HD096853). The authors thank the three anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback.
Funding
We recognize infrastructure funding from the Pennsylvania State University Population Research Institute (5P2CHD041025-17).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Appendix
Appendix
General timeline of seasonal rainfall, agricultural activities, and LSMS data collection
Map of Ethiopia including LSMS enumeration areas, agricultural seasons, altitude, and regional boundaries
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Randell, H., Grace, K. & Bakhtsiyarava, M. Climatic conditions and infant care: implications for child nutrition in rural Ethiopia. Popul Environ 42, 524–552 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11111-020-00373-3
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11111-020-00373-3