Good soil management can reduce dietary zinc deficiency in Zimbabwe

Table 3 Potential contribution of different soil fertility management options to improving dietary Zn supply and reducing the number of DALYs lost due to ill-health

Parameter	Scenario 1 (baseline)	Scenario 2	Scenario 3	Scenario 4	Scenario 5	Scenario 6
Dietary Zn supply (mg capita⁻¹ day⁻¹)	9.3	9.4	10.1	11.9	12.5	13.7
Dietary Zn deficiency (%)	67.7	66.7	55.2	30.9	25.1	16.7
DALYs lost due to Zn deficiency	12,092***	11,915	9854	5516	4486	2973
DALYs saved due to adoption of improved soil fertility management	n.a	177	2238	6576	7606	9119
Value of DALYs lost (DALYs lost * GDP¹) (US$)	19,371,384	19,088,243	15,786,087	8,836,435	7,186,333	4,763,160
Health benefit² (US$ year⁻¹)	n.a	283,141	3,585,297	10,534,949	12,185,051	14,608,224
Maize yield annum⁻¹ (% of baseline)	100	108	134	188	268	304
Value of maize yield (US$ ha⁻¹)	436	470	585	819	1170	1326
Value of national maize production (US$ year⁻¹)	588,867,073	633,617,969	789,625,750	1,104,960,402	1,578,514,860	1,788,983,508
Yield benefit (US$ year⁻¹)	n.a	44,750,896	200,758,677	516,093,329	989,647,787	1,200,116,435
Net benefit from yield changes and DALYs burden (US$ year⁻¹)	n.a	45,034,037	204,343,974	526,628,278	1,001,832,838	1,214,724,658
Scale of yield benefit vs health benefit (Ratio)	n.a	158	56	49	81	82

^***Value obtained from the Global Health Data exchange (2017; http://ghdx.healthdata.org/)
¹GDP is Gross Domestic Product. The GDP per capita used for Zimbabwe is US$1,602 (https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD?locations=ZW for 2017)
²Health benefit implies reduction in disease burden due to Zn deficiency, calculated by monetizing each DALY saved. n.a = not applicable. Farmers practicing legume-cereal rotations were excluded from these calculations

ISSN: 2662-4044