Shaping Healthy Future through Improved Dietary Pattern and Food Security of Agricultural Households Access to Basic Services and Productive Assets? Evidence from Kashmir Valley

The paper presents the evaluation of the effectiveness of the structural organization of the system of multi-level secure access to external network resources. We conducted a comparative analysis and optimization of the pattern of access ‘Direct connection’, with its various forms of implementation during the organization of a secure connection of end-node internal network to the resources located in the external network. The study was conducted on the basis that each security element is included in the pattern of the secure access is able to detect and eliminate the threats of the other elements of the system of protection. Pattern of access ‘Direct connection’ in a general form has four variants of construction, differing from each other by mutual arrangement of the key elements: firewall with packet-filtering, firewall with adaptive detailed packet inspection and the router. It was a mathematical model to calculate the reliability of the ways of construction of the pattern of access. It is shown that the most reliable way of construction of pattern of access is one that includes a single group of routers for the entire system. Ways are not very different from each other reliability value that include two groups of routers on the overall system.

Seasonal variations in agriculture is a major contributor to undernutrition in many agrarian economies. While recent studies have highlighted the role of markets in improving nutrition, the relative importance of markets in smoothing food consumption across seasons remains largely unexamined. Using data from Sierra Leone, this paper analyses whether access to local food markets mitigates seasonal fluctuations in household dietary diversity and food security. Our results confirm that agricultural seasonality imposes significant fluctuations on household dietary diversity and food security. Households, especially those in rural areas, are found to experience significant deteriorations in dietary diversity and food security during the lean season. Most importantly, the results also show that households with better market access consume more diverse diets and are more food secure in both lean and non-lean seasons than remoter households. An important policy implication of these results is that market-based interventions aimed at strengthening market access through improved market infrastructure and roads can significantly contribute to year-long food consumption smoothing, improved dietary diversity and overall food and nutrition security.

The vulnerable group is the most prone to artificial or natural shocks, which could expose them food insecurity. Yet, there exists a dearth of practical information on their dietary diversity and food security status. This study, therefore, assessed the food security status and dietary diversity of the vulnerable group of Fadama III Additional Financing in Nigeria. Primary data collected from 165 respondents were analyzed using descriptive statistics, cost-of-calories, logit model, household dietary diversity score and Tobit model. The results revealed that the vulnerable group was aged smallholder farmers with a low average monthly income of N13,718 (USD 37.13). The majority (88.5%) were food insecure, while only 11.5% met the daily calorie intake of 2,260 kcal per capita. Educational level, income, and value of productive assets positively influenced their food security status, while household size negatively impacted them. Most of the vulnerable group had low dietary diversity, with a range of 0.31 to 0.40, indicating poor nutrition among them. The determinants of dietary diversity among them were gender, educational level, and household size. The most commonly employed food insecurity coping strategies were allowing children to eat first, collecting food from the wild, selling assets to buy food, eating once a day and purchase food on credit. This study suggests policy measures for educating the vulnerable group ,providing production assets and better family planning for the vulnerable group to enhance their dietary diversity and food security.

This paper emerges from a doctoral research study investigating the potential of investing in Productive Assets (PA) as a strategic intervention to combat household food insecurity in Mudzi Rural District, Zimbabwe. The study arose against a background of persistent food insecurity in Mudzi Rural District, which is exacerbated by climate change and poses severe challenges to rural households, limiting their access to stable and productive resources and livelihoods for food security. Over the years between 2019 and 2024, climate change impact has exacerbated food insecurity in rural communities of Zimbabwe, with Mudzi rural communities experiencing recurrent and severe climate shocks in the form of droughts, flash-floods, storms, extreme temperatures and disease outbreaks that affected both crops and livestock-based livelihoods. These events heightened community vulnerabilities, destabilised livelihoods, and threatened food availability, access and stability, forcing many households to rely on humanitarian assistance. Against this backdrop, the objective of the study was to examine the impact of investing in Productive Assets (PA) on household food security in Mudzi Rural District, investigating the impact of PA investments and strategies for improving household food security outcomes; and informing the development of a household food security promotion model in rural communities. Having been grounded in the Entitlements Theory and the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework, the study intended both to find affirmation on the foundational importance of productive assets in achieving (household) food security and to confirm whether these two frameworks were applicable in the study. In this regard, this paper presents the findings for the discussion and analysis conducted on the applicability of the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework and Entitlement Approach to the promotion of household food security in Mudzi Rural District. The literature on the two frameworks was examined in light of their applicability, providing a theoretical framework for examining household food security through investments in productive assets. Overall, this paper makes the case that, despite the two theories’ limitations in terms of fully applying to the study’s scope, they offer important frameworks and guidance to position PA investments as essential to enhancing household food security by improving access to entitlements, enhancing various aspects of community food production processes, and taking into account important risks and institutional requirements that result in improved food accessibility, availability, utilization, and stability.

<p><strong>Background:</strong> Mexico has having since 1940 governmental programs to increase maize productivity without fully achieve their objectives, and one of the critics has been don´t consider the heterogeneity of Mexican farm households cultivating it and their gaps, considering a binomial model of commercial and subsistence agriculture. Productivity gaps have been studied focusing on yield differences between optimal and real conditions. <strong>Objective: </strong>This paper elaborates on productivity gaps of 3391 maize farm households from the Central and South part of Mexico, taking into account their diversity, adding social and functional elements. <strong>Methodology</strong>: The variables were divided into structural, functionals and social, and were analyzed by the multivariate method of principal components analysis. <strong>Results:</strong> Five type were found, with significant differences between them. The major productivity gaps were between <em>Commercial Mechanized farm households</em> and the rest of the types, they have access to better productive assets (6 ). In second place, the <em>Subsistence farm households with women participation,</em> presented the lowest yields (1 ), explained by less productive assets and by social attributes (women and indigenous). Between both types are the other types, with similar assets but social differences: the <em>Low Mechanized farm households</em> cultivate in the tropics using a half modernized farming system ( ), the<em> Semi-commercial farm households with Elder Families</em> (2.5 and <em>Farm households with Diversified Income</em> (2.3 . <strong>Implications: </strong>This evidenced the inappropriate bimodal agriculture vision persisting in policy designing, because several types of farms can explain the limited historical programs outputs focus on maize productivity. <strong>Conclusion: </strong>This study concludes indicating that maize productivity in Mexico is not only affected by the processes of agriculture modernization, but also by other social processes.</p>

Dietary intake plays a pivotal role in sustaining optimal melatonin levels, while the relationship between dietary patterns and circulating melatonin levels remains unclear. This study aims to investigate the associations between dietary patterns, nutrient intake, and serum melatonin levels in the Chinese population. This cross-sectional study included 6,521 Chinese adults. Three dietary patterns were identified through principal component analysis. Multivariable linear regression was used to assess the associations between dietary patterns and serum melatonin levels. The covariance analysis and partial least squares regression was used to evaluate the association between micronutrient intake and serum melatonin concentrations. The Dietary pattern 2 (DP2), characterized by high intake of fatty foods and red meat with the lowest Dietary Variety Score (DVS), and DP3 featuring high consumption of red meat, fruits, and vegetables but low intake of white meat and aquatic products with low DVS, were significantly associated with lower serum melatonin levels (DP2: β = - 0.12, P-trend < 0.001; DP3: β = - 0.13, P-trend < 0.001). Insufficient nutrient and quality intake of dietary fiber, potassium, vitamin B2, calcium, and magnesium was found in DP2, whereas DP3 showed inadequate intake of protein, cholesterol, vitamin B2, niacin, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, selenium, and iron. Specific dietary patterns, low dietary diversity and nutrient deficiencies are associated to reduced melatonin levels. These findings reveal distinct mechanisms linking overall dietary patterns to serum melatonin concentrations, underscoring the importance of appropriate dietary patterns and nutrients intake in sustaining optimal circulating melatonin homeostasis in humans.

Exchange asymmetries in productive assets: Tools, fertilizer or cash?

Infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices directly affect the nutritional status of children under two years of age, ultimately impacting their survival. However, ensuring that newborns and young children are fed according to the WHO-recommended practice has proven to be a challenge in many developing nations, especially in households that face food insecurity. This study aims to determine the association between IYCF practices and household food security's availability and access dimensions in rural Zambia. The study uses data from a cross-sectional survey of 2,127 mother-child pairs drawn from 28 rural districts in 8 out of the 10 Zambian provinces. Logistic regression analysis was used to examine the association of minimum dietary diversity, minimum meal frequency, and minimum acceptable diet with measures of household food security such as household dietary diversity score, and food insecurity experience scale, while controlling for confounding variables. The results show that children living in households classified as being food-secure based on the household dietary diversity score were significantly more likely to achieve appropriate feeding practices on all three IYCF measures, even after controlling for confounding factors. Notably, poor IYCF practices exist even in food-secure households, as most children in these households still need to receive a minimum acceptable diet. Although living in a household classified as food secure based on the access dimensions of household dietary diversity score and food insecurity experience scale is significantly associated with improvements in all three IYCF indicators even after controlling for confounding factors, the relationship does not hold for the availability measure of months of adequate household food provisioning. These findings highlight the need for targeting specific dimensions of household food security to solve child malnutrition, especially in rural areas. The focus should go beyond basic food availability, ensuring adequate diversity, and enhancing knowledge of appropriate feeding practices.

Fruit and Vegetable Prescriptions for Pediatric Patients in Flint, Michigan: Program Development, Methods, and Baseline Characteristics (FS02-05-19)

Though fruit and vegetable consumption is essential for disease prevention and health maintenance, intake among children fails to meet dietary recommendations. Limited access to and the affordability of fresh produce, particularly among low-income youth, are barriers to adequate intake. To address these challenges, researchers and pediatricians in Flint, Michigan, expanded a successful fruit and vegetable prescription program that provides one $15 prescription for fresh fruits and vegetables to every child at every office visit. Vendors include the downtown farmers’ market and a local mobile market. This study describes baseline characteristics, dietary patterns, food access, and food security among 261 caregiver–child dyads enrolled August 2018–March 2019. The child-reported mean daily intake of vegetables (0.72 cups ± 0.77), dairy products (1.33 cups ± 1.22), and whole grains (0.51 ounces ± 0.49) were well below recommendations. Furthermore, 53% of children and 49% of caregivers who completed the food security module indicated low or very low food security. However, there were no statistically significant differences in the child consumption of fruits and vegetables between households that reported high versus low food security (p > 0.05). Results validate and raise deep concerns about poor dietary patterns and food insecurity issues facing Flint children, many of whom continue to battle with an ongoing drinking water crisis. Additional poverty-mitigating efforts, such as fruit and vegetable prescription programs, are necessary to address these gaps.

The Nigerian government introduced the Household Upliftment Program (HUP) which is a conditional cash transfer scheme to help households improve consumption levels, reduce poverty and therefore prevent vulnerable households from becoming poorer. This paper investigated the impact of Condition Cash Transfer of HUP on household food security in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. The objectives were to assess the impact of CCT on protecting the beneficiary’s basic level of food consumption from becoming food insecure and also determine if CCT of HUP facilitate the beneficiary to invest in human and other productive assets. The paper utilized descriptive statistics, food security index, Likert scale and propensity score technique to analyse the research objectives. The findings showed that on average, benefitting and non-benefitting households spent about N31,917.78 ($76.46) and N34,898.67 ($83.60) respectively on food per month. Food insecurity was higher among benefiting households compared to non-benefiting households. The Average Treatment Effect on the Treated (ATET) estimator value was −0.2610. The negative value suggests that, on average, benefiting households spend 26.10% less on food consumption than non-benefitting households. The results imply that the current cash transfer program may not be effectively addressing food insecurity among beneficiaries. However, the CCT program facilitated the beneficiaries’ ability to invest in human and productive assets, enhanced their financial and social inclusion, opened doors to financial services previously inaccessible to many and fostered a sense of community among them. The paper concludes that while conditional cash transfer programs have the potential to positively impact beneficiaries, the government must reassess and potentially adjust the program to better address the current inflationary pressures and ensure its positive impact on the food security of the beneficiaries.

The authors report the results of a study of Mexican farm households using 1991 survey data and a smaller resurvey of some of the same households in 1993. One study goal was to empirically examine the relationship between assets and the output supply function. Using a production model focusing on capital as a productive input, they found that both the supply level and the responsiveness (elasticities) to changing input and output prices tend to depend on the farmer's net assets and on how productive assets are used. Regression analysis using data from the surveys shows that farmers who use productive assets such as machinery tend to be positively responsive to price changes, while those with no access to such assets are not. Another study goal was to monitor the condition of Mexican farmers in a rapidly changing policy environment. The 1991 survey data suggest that farmers with more limited use of capital inputs (low-CI) to grow principally corn and to grow fewer crops, on average, than the others. They aso had more problems getting credit and were less likely to use purchased inputs, such as seeds, fertilizer, and pesticides, or to use a tractor to prepare the soil. They tended to be less well-educated, and their land tended to be of lower quality. Results from the panel data showed conditions generally improving for the average farmer in the sample area between 1991 and 1993, during a period when agricultural reforms were implemented. Cropping patterns were more diversified, the average size of landholdings increased, the average farmer received more credit (in real terms), more farm households earned income from off-farm work, and more farmers used purchased inputs. Asset ownership and educational attainment also improved modestly. The very small low-CI group in this sample fared as well as, or better than, the other goroups. True, their level of educational achievement fell, and fewer of them had off-farm income than in 1991. But their use of credit, irrigation, machinery, and purchased inputs increased more than for other groups. The limited data are not proof of a causal link, but the fact that the goals are being met should at least ensure that adverse conditions are not undermining reform. Farmers that lacked access to productive assets did not respond as well to incentives or take advantage of the opportunities presented by reform and may need assistance, particularly to get access to credit markets. There may be a good argument for decoupling income supports from price supports for farmers, since income payments that are independent of the vagaries of production could provide a more stable signal of creditworthiness than price supports do. Possibly reorienting research and extension services more to the needs of low-CI producers could also improve the efficiency with which the sector ajdusts to new incentives. Hypotheses and tentative conclusions from this study will be explored further when more data are collected in 1995.

Market access influences the dietary diversity and food security for smallholder households in many ways. In Ethiopia, most smallholders are subsistence farmers who have poor access to markets. This study used primary data from a household survey to examine the relationship between market access and the dietary diversity and food security for 324 smallholder households in the Yayu area of southwestern Ethiopia in early 2018. Multivariate regression analysis showed that households located far from market centers consumed not only less diverse foods but also spend less on food consumption than households located close to market centers. The correlation between market access and food security measured by Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) did not reach statistical significance, nor did the impact of market access on household consumption and dietary diversity through income. Rather, greater market access appeared to encourage smallholder households to rely on market purchases more than their own production to improve the diversity of household consumption. A direct action to improve the market accessibility would be investments in infrastructure to expand rural road connectivity, which would reduce transaction costs and benefit the welfare of smallholder farmers and communities.

Summary Food and nutritional (in)security remain an important matter of concern, especially in developing countries. Despite the efforts to enhance food security among smallholder soybean households, the proportion of the undernourished population in Butere Sub-County still remains high for unknown reasons. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of food security among smallholder soybean households in Butere Sub-County, Kenya. The study adopted the exploratory research design. A multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select a sample of 201 respondents. Cross-sectional data were gathered through face-to-face interviews using pretested semi-structured questionnaires and analyzed using ordered logistic regression model. Household Food Insecurity Access Scale was used to measure and categorize the soybean household food (in)security status. The results revealed that the household food (in)security status differed across soybean households and was greatly influenced by an interplay of socio-economic, market, and institutional factors. Age of the household head negatively influenced food security, whereas the level of soybean commercialization, education, livestock units, network density, extension visits, and credit access were positively associated with household food security. The study recommends policy interventions that seek to ensure intensive literacy development, frequent extension and training, improved access to credit, and reinvestment in productive assets or inputs for increased production, commercialization and food security. Strengthening of social ties and increased allocation to safety net programs for the aged, vulnerable, and resource-poor households are also recommended.

Resilience capacities and household nutrition in the presence of shocks. Evidence from Malawi