Farm Production Diversity Research Articles

The impact of agricultural specialization on dietary diversity in rural China

Abstract Clarifying the linkage of rural households’ agricultural specialization and dietary diversity is crucial for promoting agricultural transformation and development, and improving food security and dietary quality among rural residents. A household dietary survey was conducted to investigate this association in rural China. The findings indicate that agricultural specialization is linked with decreased dietary diversity among smallholders. The decline in farm production diversity underscores the crucial role that markets play in shaping the diets of farm households. The heterogeneous analysis unveils the mediation effect of market on the relationship between agricultural production and food consumption and further confirms the importance of market access to smallholders’ dietary diversity. The results indicate that against the backdrop of agricultural specialization and a significant rural-to-urban migration, A series of complementary measures should be implemented for smallholders’ food consumption welfare. The stable food market availability is a key strategy for ensuring adequate dietary diversity for rural residents.

Local and regional food production diversity are positively associated with household dietary diversity in rural Africa

Undernutrition and low dietary quality remain widespread issues in Africa. As most rural households in the region are involved in farming, the diversification of own farm production could improve their access to nutritious foods. Here we use representative panel data from six African countries to estimate this effect across different scales. We show that farm production diversity is positively associated with household dietary diversity—yet the average magnitude of the association is small, depends on the specific measure of production diversity and increases with distance from urban centres. In all countries, markets and market access are more important for dietary diversity than own production. Because village-, town- and district-level production diversity are often positively associated with dietary diversity, higher diversity on each individual farm may not be required. The appropriate spatial scale should be considered when designing diversification strategies.

Farm production diversity and its influence on diet quality in South Eastern Kenya

Farm production diversity and its influence on diet quality in South Eastern Kenya

Oil palm expansion, food security and diets: Comparative evidence from Cameroon and Indonesia

Farm households in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and the Americas continue to rapidly adopt oil palm, often at the expense of rainforests and traditional food crops. The environmental and income implications of oil palm expansion have been extensively documented, albeit primarily using data from Southeast Asia. Beyond a few case studies, research on the links between oil palm adoption, food security and dietary diversity among smallholders is scarce. This research gap is partly addressed in this study using data from Cameroon and Indonesia, two countries with different backgrounds in oil palm production, history and marketing systems. Oil palm is native to Cameroon but is an exotic crop in Indonesia that was commercialized a few decades ago. Household food insecurity experience scales and dietary diversity scores are computed, and descriptive and regression estimations are employed for the empirical analysis. Opposing results are revealed, reflecting the contextual differences between the two oil palm production frontiers. Oil palm farmers in Cameroon consume less diverse food than non-oil palm farmers. In Indonesia, on the other hand, oil palm farmers perform better than their non-oil palm counterparts and consume more diversified foods, possibly explaining why smallholders in Southeast Asia continue to adopt the crop rapidly. No statistically significant relationship is obtained between oil palm production and food security. The findings also suggest that income, employment, and farm production diversity may explain the observed relationship between oil palm adoption, food security and diets. Given this, oil palm production may not be a universally suitable strategy to improve food and nutrition insecurity but may be useful in some production frontiers. Context-specific and tailored policies are needed to make oil palm cultivation and food systems more nutrition-sensitive and environment-friendly.

Context matters: Oil palm production and women's dietary diversity in the tropical forest of Cameroon

AbstractOil palm is one of the most rapidly expanding food and cash crops in many tropical regions with significant environmental implications, but also economic gains. Previous analyses have established that this expansion is associated with changing gender roles and time allocation for women. Time allocation is an important determinant of maternal and child nutrition as well as well‐being. We use a rich farm household survey from a native oil palm production hotspot, Cameroon, to examine the associations between oil palm production and women's dietary diversity. Using different estimation and identification strategies with some sensitivity checks, we show that oil palm is associated with lower dietary diversity for women, measured as the minimum dietary diversity for women and the minimum adequacy diversity diet. We explore heterogeneity in the various food groups consumed by women and show that oil palm production is associated with lower consumption of mainly pulses, fruits and vegetables. These findings contrast with the literature that has established some positive dietary diversity implications of oil palm expansion in Southeast Asia. We carefully discuss these findings and argue that context matters and may explain these differences. Particularly, we show that oil palm production is negatively associated with farm production diversity in Cameroon. Notwithstanding, we also confirm previous findings that highlight that oil palm production is associated with higher income. These insights add to the debate on the implications of oil palm expansion in tropical environments. Moreover, they can guide policy in designing more tailored interventions that address nutrition issues and improve rural development.

Linking nutrition education and farm production diversification to fruit and vegetable consumption in Zimbabwe

The main aim of the research was to analyze whether nutrition education and farm production diversification improved household dietary diversity as well as fruit and vegetable consumption among rural households in Zimbabwe. A cross-sectional survey using systematic random sampling was conducted in eight rural districts covering 1417 households. Poisson, Instrumental Variables Poisson, and Instrumental Variables probit regressions were used for analysis. Nutrition education and farm production diversity were associated with 53% and 2% increase in household dietary diversity, respectively. Nutrition education shows a significant and positive association with both fruits and vegetables intake. Nutrition education was associated with a 50% and 18% likelihood of consuming fruits and vegetables, respectively. Farm production diversification was associated with fruit consumption among rural households. Using alternative model specifications, we note that nutrition education was associated with an increase in the frequency of consuming vegetables. Farm production diversification and income were positively correlated with the frequency of fruit intake. Therefore, government, private sector, and development agencies need to promote nutrition education programs that emphasize production and consumption of fruits and vegetables. Second, interventions that promote crop and livestock diversification, including household cultivation of nutrient-rich fruits and vegetables, need to be upscaled.

Farm production diversity, household dietary diversity, and nutrition: Evidence from Uganda's national panel survey.

Improved food security and nutrition remain a notable global challenge. Yet, food security and nutrition are areas of strategic importance regarding the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. The increasingly weakening global food production systems pose a threat to sustainable improved food security and nutrition. Consequently, a significant population remains chronically hungry and severely malnourished. As a remedy, farm production diversity (FPD) remains a viable pathway through which household nutrition can be improved. However, evidence is mixed, or unavailable on how FPD is associated with key nutrition indicators like household dietary diversity, energy, iron, zinc, and vitamin A (micronutrients). We use the Uganda National Panel Survey (UNPS) data for rural households to analyze differential associations of sub-components of FPD on dietary diversity, energy, and micronutrient intake. Panel data models reveal that indeed crop species count, and animal species count (sub-components of FPD) are differently associated with household dietary diversity score (HDDS), energy, and vitamin A sourced from markets. Moreover, when volumes of these nutrition outcomes were disaggregated by source (own farm vs. markets), the animal species count was only positively significantly associated with nutrition outcomes sourced from consumption of produce from own farm. Associations were insignificant for nutrition indicators sourced from markets except vitamin A. The crop species count, however, consistently showed a strong positive and significant association with energy, and all studied micronutrients sourced from own farm produce consumption, as well as those sourced from markets except Vitamin A, which was negative but insignificant. Therefore, inclusive, pro-poor, and pro-nutrition rural policy initiatives in the context of rural Uganda and similar ones, could more widely improve household nutrition through prioritizing crop species diversification on own farms because crops fetch wider nutrition gains.

Using instrumental variables to establish the relationship between household production diversity and household dietary diversity in northern Ghana

Despite the potential for agricultural diversification to improve nutrition, little scientific evidence exists in low- and middle-income countries on how the linkages between agriculture and nutrition work. In order to develop effective policies to address the nutrition-agricultural linkages in Ghana, it is important to understand and analyze the relationship between these variables. Agricultural production influences dietary quality because many rural households primarily depend on the food they produce. Households’ access to a diverse diet could enhance nutrition security as well as reduce mortality related to malnutrition. Thus, if households adopt a nutrition-sensitive approach in their production process, this may provide the necessary ingredients for diverse diets. However, over the years agricultural interventions in many developing countries have focused mainly on selected crops, particularly cereals, which may not meet household nutritional requirements. While these efforts have contributed to the reduction in hunger, over 800 million people in developing countries still suffer from hunger and micronutrient deficiencies. These effects show that eradicating hunger alone is not enough to ensure nutrition security. However, a potential solution comes from the agricultural sector through farm production diversity. A survey of rural farm households in Northern Ghana was conducted in the major and minor production seasons. Data were collected from six districts using a semi-structured questionnaire. The head of household (main decision maker) (n=505) and a woman mainly in charge of food preparation in the house were the main respondents in the surveys. Household dietary diversity score (HDDS) was measured as the number of counts of 12 food groups eaten by households within 24 hours prior to the interview and household production diversity score (HPDS) was measured as the total number of counts of crops and animals produced by the household in the last twelve months based on the same twelve food groups used in HDDS. A two stage least square with instrumental variables model was developed and estimated. After correcting for endogeneity, increased HPDS increased HDDS while increased distance to the nearest market, household size, proportion of produce sold, income, and price of maize decreased HDDS. Households are encouraged to diversify production but with caution because diversifying production may be unreliable due to the heavy reliance on rainfall in the area which is often unpredictable. Key words: production diversity, dietary diversity, nutrition-sensitive agriculture, instrumental variables, nutrition

Impact of the farmer input support policy on agricultural production diversity and dietary diversity in Zambia

Impact of the farmer input support policy on agricultural production diversity and dietary diversity in Zambia

Nutritional Outcomes of Farm Households in Nigeria: To What Extent does Farm Production Diversity influence Households' Diets?

Nutritional Outcomes of Farm Households in Nigeria: To What Extent does Farm Production Diversity influence Households' Diets?

Rural Market Food Diversity and Farm Production Diversity: Do They Complement or Substitute Each Other in Contributing to a Farm Household's Dietary Diversity?

Majority of undernourished people live in rural Asia and Africa, and many of them are smallholder farmers and consume a significant amount of what they produce. This is specifically true in India. However, in the context of increasing commercial production systems, it is not well-known how much food is consumed from a particular food group that was purchased, what proportion of food is from the production of farm households, and how their diets change seasonally. Furthermore, whether the rural market food diversity complements or substitutes farm production diversity in household's diets is unknown. We employed a mixed-methods research design to answer these questions. The research was conducted in three villages in Telengana State. The results reveal that crop diversity has significantly declined from a highly-diverse production system to a less diverse one. The Food Consumption Score results show that on average own-farm production contributes 23% of food (mainly starchy staples), while market purchases contribute 77% of calories consumed (from more diverse and nutritious foods). Therefore, in the study, villages' market food diversity is more important, and it is complementary to own-farm production. However, our study shows that mere market access (the most widely used proxy indicator in the literature) does not guarantee the availability of diverse nutritious foods to households who use that specific market. This is because market food diversity varies from market to market and across seasons. Therefore, we proposed that in commercial production systems improving crop diversity, and strengthening rural markets, are needed. Moreover, incentivizing retail business and subsidizing nutritious and/or biofortified food in rural areas must be part of strategies to improve nutrition in rural India.

Leveraging farm production diversity for dietary diversity: evidence from national level panel data

Dietary diversity is the key to improved health and nutrition. Farm production diversity has the potential of enhancing dietary diversity but this interrelationship varies and is ambiguous in many societies. To examine the effect of farm production diversity on household dietary diversity using nationally representative panel data of Bangladesh we have used Bangladesh Integrated Household Survey (BIHS) data collected by International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in 2011/12, 2015 and 2018/19. Total sample size is 11,720. For assessing dietary diversity we have used different indicators namely household dietary diversity score (HDDS) and food variety score (FVS). We have also used multiple methods for measuring farm production diversity including production diversity score, crop diversity score and Simpson diversification index. Poisson regression model has been used. Results revealed a strong positive association among farm production diversity, income and dietary diversity though the extent of the association is small. The variables such as market orientation, access to market, age and education are also found to influence on household dietary diversity. Our results propose that for increasing dietary diversity efforts should be taken to increase farm production diversity combined with diverse income and market access.

Farm production diversity and women's dietary diversity: Evidence from central Tunisia.

In the context of studies on the effects of agricultural production diversity, there are debates in the scientific community as to the level of diversification appropriate for improving dietary diversity. In Tunisia, agriculture is a strategic sector for the economy and a critical pillar of its food sovereignty. Using instrumental variable methods to account for endogeneity, we have estimated the association between agricultural production diversity and women’s dietary diversity among smallholder farming households in the Sidi Bouzid governorate (central Tunisia). Although we found a low level of agricultural production diversity and a fairly diversified diet among women, we observed a systematic weak positive association between five different indicators of agricultural production diversity and women’s dietary diversity. We observed a stronger positive association between women’s dietary diversity and women being more educated and households being wealthier. Neither diversity of food supplies in food markets nor market distance were associated with women’s dietary diversity, whereas we observed a higher level of consumption of some products (dairy) when they were produced on the farm.

Linking farm production diversity to household dietary diversity controlling market access and agricultural technology usage: evidence from Noakhali district, Bangladesh

Linking farm production diversity to household dietary diversity controlling market access and agricultural technology usage: evidence from Noakhali district, Bangladesh

Farm Production Diversification and Dietary Diversity among Subsistence Farming Households: Panel Data Evidence from South Africa

Improving the production of a variety of foods by subsistence farmers has been identified as a key strategy for improving dietary diversity. However, there is limited evidence in South Africa on how one’s own production is linked to dietary diversity. This study relies on nationally representative panel data to investigate the extent to which farm production diversity is correlated with dietary diversity. The data indicated a moderate level of household dietary diversity that has been on a declining trend between 2008 and 2017. The farm households produced three food groups (meat, cereals, and vegetables), suggesting more reliance on food purchases than own production. The study found a positive relationship between own production diversification and dietary diversity and that dietary diversity varied by demographics and socio-economic characteristics of households. However, production diversity was not significantly associated with the consumption of micronutrient-rich foods such as fruits or vegetables. Higher levels of education, income per capita, food expenditure, and geographic location were some of the key drivers of dietary diversity among subsistence households. The findings suggest that encouraging subsistence farming households to produce various crop and animal species can be an effective strategy to improve dietary diversity among poor households in South Africa.

Does adoption of agroforestry increase farm production and dietary diversity in the hills of Nepal?

There are few studies on the influence of agroforestry intervention in the farming and food system. We thus conducted this study to assess farm production diversity and household dietary diversity in the coffee-based agroforestry in Deusa village, Solukhumbu district, Nepal. This study collected data through questionnaire survey, food diary checklist for 24 hours diet recall, transect walk, focus group discussions, and key informant interviews. We compared farm production diversity and household dietary diversity scores between two agroforestry types - traditional and coffee-based. We used Pearson’s Chi-Square and Fisher’s Exact tests to assess the association between agroforestry type and 16 food groups wise consumption. Results showed that the farm production diversity is positively associated with the household dietary diversity. Among 16 food groups, households under coffee-based agroforestry system were more likely to consume dark green leafy vegetables (Chi square- 5.385; df=1; p<0.05), and descriptive statistics showed relatively higher consumption for most of the other food groups. It indicates that agroforestry intervention can be beneficial to improve farm production diversity and household dietary diversity in the longer run. Thus, agroforestry promotion is not only important in enhancing biodiversity and farm income but also equally vital in improving food and nutrition security for smallholders.

Farm Production Diversity in Aquaculture Has Been Overlooked as a Contributor to Sustainability

Like many sectors, the expansion of aquaculture has issues related to sustainable resource use and environmental change. These challenges are widely recognised and are addressed with sectoral strategies. Even when culturing a single species, the specifics of impacts, constraints, and pressures are likely to vary in effects for different farm types. On the other hand, production efficiencies can drive farms towards homogeneity. A simple model is used in this study to demonstrate farm-scale budgets and the pressure to intensify production towards an optimum. A range of interventions can provide incentives for less intensive production: these include price premiums and altered cost bases. Integrated multitrophic aquaculture (IMTA) does not offer a route to less intensive production systems if the productivity of the extractive species (e.g., algae) is linked to the intensity of the fish farm, although alternative incentives for IMTA are possible. Increases in the intensity of production (as stocking density) can be mitigated by increasing farm capacity. An expanded production model suggests that this will lead to larger farms at relatively high stocking densities. Where farms are subject to variable economic and biological processes, this can lead to some combinations of intensity and capacity to have less variable earnings than others. The promotion of diverse aquaculture sectors may allow some of the ecological and social synergies available to smaller farms to be combined at a regional scale with the greater production of large farms. Cost, price and/or regulatory incentives are needed to create diverse production systems.

Agricultural production diversity and child nutrition in Ethiopia

This study investigates how two aspects of agricultural production diversity – farm production diversity and composition of production – relate to child height-for-age and weight-for-height in Ethiopia. We use longitudinal data on child anthropometric measurements, household farm production diversity and farm production composition from the Ethiopia Socioeconomic Survey for 2011, 2013, and 2015 available through the World Bank. Using longitudinal fixed effects models, we show that an increase in farm production diversity reduces the risk of chronic food insecurity (child height-for-age) but has no impact on acute measures of food insecurity (child weight-for-height). Results also suggest that, in a context of poor rainfall, more diversity in farm production can adversely impact child height-for-age, although livestock sales might mitigate that detrimental effect. These findings highlight the importance of considering the relationship between farm-level food production and child nutrition in a context of climate change.

Farm Production Diversity and Household Dietary Diversity: Panel Data Evidence From Rural Households in Tanzania

Evidence on whether diversifying farm production leads to improved household dietary diversity and nutrition remains inconclusive. Existing studies analyzing the link between production diversity and dietary diversity are mainly based on cross-sectional methods, which could be biased by omitted confounding factors. Using two waves of a panel household survey of 900 rural households in Tanzania, this paper examines the link between production diversity and dietary diversity, while minimizing potential confounding effects. We estimate four regression models with two different production diversity measures and two panel estimation methods—fixed effect (FE) and random effect (RE). In three out of the four models, production diversity is significantly and positively associated with the dietary diversity measure of the food consumption score. The production diversity indicator is represented by the total crop and livestock species count, as well as by counting only crop species. The total crop and livestock species count shows a significant positive association with dietary diversity across estimation methods while the positive association with crop species count is not significant in the FE method. Our results suggest that the selection of appropriate production diversity indicators tailored to the specific circumstances of the local agricultural system is likely one key factor in identifying a robust relationship between production diversity and dietary diversity.

The role of rubber farming in household dietary diversity in the upper Mekong region, Southwest China

AbstractThe expansion of cash tree crops, such as natural rubber, in the tropical region of South Asia has resulted in an agricultural transformation from subsistence production to market‐oriented production, implicating the local ecological environment, economy, and household welfare. Based on representative household survey data collected from 611 smallholder rubber farmers in the upper Mekong region, Southwest China, this study examines the impacts of rubber farming on the household dietary diversity of smallholders and explores its potential impact channels through farm production diversity and household income. The results show that rubber expansion has significantly improved household income but negatively affected farm production diversity. While rubber cultivation always has significant and positive effects on dietary diversity, it also indirectly impacts on dietary diversity by the two channels, namely farm production diversity and household income. A set of heterogeneous analyses reveals that rubber cultivation contributes more to household dietary diversity for smallholders having relatively low household wealth or living in a village without a market. While the findings confirm the contribution of rubber cultivation to improving household incomes, food security, and nutrition, the potential risks under the background of falling rubber prices cannot be ignored. The findings of this study not only have important policy implications for improving the food security and nutrition of smallholder rubber farmers but also provide a better understanding of the welfare effects of cash tree crop expansion in tropical regions.