Abstract
Achieving and maintaining food and nutrition security is an important Sustainable Development Goal, especially in countries with largely vulnerable population with high occurrence of hunger and malnutrition. By studying a small-scale agricultural system in India, we aim to understand the current state of dietary diversity and food insecurity among the farmer communities. The study landscape has witnessed a steady rise in multiple cropping (i.e. harvesting more than once a year) along with irrigation over the last two decades. Whether this multiple cropping can be expected to improve year-round food security is not well understood. We specifically examine if planting multiple food crops within a year is associated with dietary diversity and food security. We collected information on demographic and economic variables, farming activities and livelihood choices, from 200 unique households for three seasons (monsoon/rainy, winter, summer) during 2016–2018 (n = 600). Based on both a 24 h and a 30 days recall, we calculated several indicators, including the household dietary diversity score, the minimum dietary diversity for women, and household food insecurity access scale. At least 43% of the sample population experiences moderate to severe food insecurity in all seasons. Cereals (mainly rice) remain the most important food item irrespective of the season, with negligible consumption of other nutrient-rich food such as tubers, fish, eggs, and meats. Around 81% of women in all seasons do not consume a minimally diverse diet. Multiple cropping is associated with higher food security only during monsoon, while selling monsoon crops is associated with winter food security. Households practicing multiple cropping consume more pulses (a plant-based protein source) compared to single-cropping or non-farming households (p < 0.05). We find that multiple cropping cannot be used as a cure-all strategy. Rather a combination of income and nutrition strategies, including more diverse home garden, diverse income portfolio, and access to clean cooking fuel, is required to achieve year-round dietary diversity or food security.
Highlights
Introduction690 million people worldwide were still undernourished in 2019 (FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO 2020) leading to a setback to achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 2.1 (ensuring access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food for all people all year round), or SDG target2.2 (eradicating all forms of malnutrition)
690 million people worldwide were still undernourished in 2019 (FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO 2020) leading to a setback to achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 2.1, or SDG target2.2
Using primary survey data from 200 households over three seasons (n = 600) from five districts in Madhya Pradesh, we investigate the following questions: (a) how do dietary diversity and food security vary across seasons for smallholder farmers?
Summary
690 million people worldwide were still undernourished in 2019 (FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO 2020) leading to a setback to achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 2.1 (ensuring access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food for all people all year round), or SDG target2.2 (eradicating all forms of malnutrition). Sustainable agricultural intensification (i.e. growing multiple crops sequentially in a year, improved high yielding crop varieties, and sustainable use of irrigation and fertilizers) is one of the ways to meet future food demand while ensuring minimum environmental degradation (Burney et al 2010, Foley et al 2011, Tilman et al 2011, ELD Initiative 2015). Multiple cropping practices may take different forms, such as similar crops growing simultaneously and sequentially or agroforestry with coexistence of diverse vegetation types. The assumed positive connection between multiple cropping and food security (Abraham et al 2014, ELD Initiative 2015) has motivated global level studies on identifying potential lands available for multiple cropping (Waha et al 2020). More comprehensive food security indicators, are frequently examined in terms of socioeconomic, political and demographic factors (Dev and Sharma 2010, Chowdhury et al 2016, Cafiero et al 2018, Isaura et al 2019), and rarely in the context of multiple cropping
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