Impact of agricultural commercialization on dietary diversity and vulnerability to poverty: Insights from Chinese rural households

Abstract

In this study, we examine the role of agricultural commercialization in influencing rural households’ dietary diversity and vulnerability to poverty. The instrumental variable (IV)-based approaches, including IV-Poisson and IV-Probit models, are employed to estimate the data collected through the China Land Economic Survey project. The results show that a higher level of agricultural commercialization is positively and significantly associated with higher dietary diversity and lower vulnerability to poverty. The poverty-reduction effect of agricultural commercialization is robust to the adjusted poverty line. Further analysis reveals that increasing the level of agricultural commercialization significantly increases the consumption levels of legumes, fruits, livestock meat, and poultry meat. The findings highlight the importance of linking farmers to markets for commercializing agricultural products, a practical way to improve rural household welfare and reduce the risk of falling into poverty.