scholarly journals Effect of agricultural diversification on dietary diversity in rural households with children under 5 years of age in Zambia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chewe Nkonde ◽  
Keiron Audain ◽  
Rebecca N. Kiwanuka‐Lubinda ◽  
Pamela Marinda
2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 772-780 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna L Roesler ◽  
Lisa G Smithers ◽  
Prasit Wangpakapattanawong ◽  
Vivienne Moore

ABSTRACT Background The aim of this study was to describe stunting in infants and young children in the ethnic communities of northern Thailand and to explore associations with dietary diversity and household factors including food security. Methods A cross-sectional survey of households with children under 5 years from eight villages. Adult respondents provided information on foods consumed by each child and details of the household. Heights and weights of children were measured. Results Adults from 172 households and 208 children participated. Overall, 38% of children were stunted. Exclusive breastfeeding was rare, but the proportion consuming breastmilk at 24 months (75%) was high. Few children (7%) aged 6–11 months met minimum dietary diversity. Stunted children were less likely than non-stunted children to meet minimum dietary diversity (63 versus 82%). Widespread food insecurity did not discriminate between stunted and non-stunted children. Stunting was elevated when households had little land and few animals. Conclusions Stunting was widespread in children under 5 years of age, in part reflecting poor dietary diversity, especially at age 6–11 months. Stunting was worst in households with least assets. Small increases in land or animals, or equivalent resources, appear to be required to improve child nutrition in extremely poor families.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (12) ◽  
pp. e003621
Author(s):  
James Manley ◽  
Yarlini Balarajan ◽  
Shahira Malm ◽  
Luke Harman ◽  
Jessica Owens ◽  
...  

BackgroundCash transfer (CT) programmes are implemented widely to alleviate poverty and provide safety nets to vulnerable households with children. However, evidence on the effects of CTs on child health and nutrition outcomes has been mixed. We systematically reviewed evidence of the impact of CTs on child nutritional status and selected proximate determinants.MethodsWe searched articles published between January 1997 and September 2018 using Agris, Econlit, Eldis, IBSS, IDEAS, IFPRI, Google Scholar, PubMed and World Bank databases. We included studies using quantitative impact evaluation methods of CTs with sample sizes over 300, targeted to households with children under 5 years old conducted in countries with gross domestic product per capita below US$10 000 at baseline. We conducted meta-analysis using random-effects models to assess the impact of CT programmes on selected child nutrition outcomes and meta-regression analysis to examine the association of programme characteristics with effect sizes.ResultsOut of 2862 articles identified, 74 articles were eligible for inclusion. We find that CTs have significant effects of 0.03±0.03 on height-for-age z-scores (p<0.03) and a decrease of 2.1% in stunting (95% CI −3.5% to −0.7%); consumption of animal-source foods (4.5%, 95% CI 2.9% to 6.0%); dietary diversity (0.73, 95% CI 0.28 to 1.19) and diarrhoea incidence (−2.7%, 95% CI −5.4% to −0.0%; p<0.05). The effects of CTs on weight-for-age z-scores and wasting were not significant (0.02, 95% CI −0.03 to 0.08; p<0.42) and (1.2%, 95% CI: −0.1% to 2.5%; p<0.07), respectively. We found that specific programme characteristics differentially modified the effect on the nutrition outcomes studied.ConclusionWe found that CT programmes targeted to households with young children improved linear growth and contributed to reduced stunting. We found that the likely pathways were through increased dietary diversity, including through the increased consumption of animal-source foods and reduced incidence of diarrhoea. With heightened interest in nutrition-responsive social protection programmes to improve child nutrition, we make recommendations to inform the design and implementation of future programmes.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-107
Author(s):  
Teklemariam Abadi

The study was conducted in midland and lowland agro-ecological zone of North western zone of Tigray, Ethiopia. Two districts were selected purposively based on their potential exotic chicken breed production. Out of the total chicken producers in the study area 264 farmers, 132 from each of the two districts were selected randomly using systematic random sampling methods. It was conducted in cross sectional survey data from 264 respondents in 2016. Its aim was to assess the contribution of producing exotic chicken to dietary diversity of the rural households with 24 hours recall method. The study examines the study area is characterized in a low dietary diversity mainly defined by starchy staples (grains, condiments, oil or fats) at the expense of protein sources (meat, fish, fruits, vegetables, eggs). The result also indicates that there is a higher probability of the exotic chicken producers groups to move from a medium dietary diversity status to a high dietary diversity status as compared with indigenous chicken producers. Based on the study result, there is possibility to improve dietary diversity and income of the households through introduction and dissemination of exotic chicken breeds to rural households. Hence, governmental and non-governmental organizations should help in intervention of exotic chicken breed to the farm households by giving different incentives.


2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (10) ◽  
pp. 1723-1730 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kalle Hirvonen ◽  
Alemayehu Seyoum Taffesse ◽  
Ibrahim Worku Hassen

AbstractObjectiveTo revisit seasonality by assessing how household diets vary across agricultural seasons in rural and urban Ethiopia. The role of seasonality on the sources and intake of energy (per capita) and household dietary diversity score (HDDS) was analysed.DesignThe use of nationally representative household-level data collected each month over one year to study the seasonal changes in the sources and intake of energy and HDDS.SettingEleven regions of Ethiopia, including rural and urban settings.SubjectsTotal of 27 835 households were interviewed between July 2010 and July 2011 in all eleven regions of the country. On average each month saw 2300 household interviews, yielding nationally representative data for each calendar month.ResultsFor rural households, the mean daily per capita energy intake was 10 288 kJ (2459 kcal) in February (post-harvest period) and lower in the lean season: 9703 kJ (2319 kcal) in June (P<0·05) and 9552 kJ (2283 kcal) in July (P<0·001). HDDS for rural households was highest in February (6·73) and lowest in June (5·98; P<0·001) but high again in July (6·57). Urban energy intake was also lower in the lean season but HDDS varied less by season. Considerable seasonal variation was also found in energy sources in rural areas, less so in urban areas.ConclusionsHousehold diets in Ethiopia remain subjected to significant seasonal stress. HDDS and food security measured using energy intake do not always agree. Preferably, HDDS and energy intake data should be used together to assess food security.


2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justus Ochieng ◽  
Victor Afari-Sefa ◽  
Daniel Karanja ◽  
Radegunda Kessy ◽  
Srinivasulu Rajendran ◽  
...  

AbstractTraditional African vegetables have recently received considerable attention for their contribution to food and nutrition security and opportunities for enhancing smallholder livelihoods. Promoting the production and consumption of traditional vegetables is expected to enhance household nutrition among urban and rural households. The Good Seed Initiative (GSI) program promoted production and consumption of nutrient-dense traditional African vegetables in Arusha region in Tanzania to reduce malnutrition through diet diversification. We estimated the impact of promotion activities on households, women, and children's dietary diversity. The study used cross-sectional data from 258 and 242 households in intervention and control regions, respectively, and applied matching techniques and inverse probability weighting to control for unobserved heterogeneity and selection bias, which could otherwise bias the outcome estimates. We found that households benefiting from traditional vegetable promotion and demand creation activities had significantly higher dietary diversity of children under 5 yr and women in reproductive age. We found no significant impact of promotion activities on households’ dietary diversity. The policy implication is that scaling up promotional and demand creation activities to encourage consumers to grow and eat traditional African vegetables would be an important element in initiatives to increase dietary diversity, particularly for children under 5 and women in Tanzania.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 333-338
Author(s):  
Chayot Gatdet Deng ◽  

The malnutrition is pervasive are in the Itang special district of Gambella region. The children, elder, pregnant women, disabilities and other disadvantageous members of the households were extremely malnourished in the district. The main aim of this study was to assess dietary diversity and the rural households’ nutrition security in Itang special district. The study was carried out in Itang Special District among the rural households. It had collected the primary data through households’ consumption survey, key informants interview and body mass index. Then, the descriptive statistics mainly frequency and percentage were used to analyze the data via SPSS version 20. The field result revealed that about 54%, 40% and 6% of the rural households have low, medium and high dietary diversity in the district. Similarly, about 53%, 35%, 5% & 7% of the rural households were underweight, normal, obese & overweight respectively in the district. There was a low dietary diversity and high prevalence of underweight among the rural households in the study district. Thus, the Office of Agriculture and Natural Resources of the district, together with the health office have to provide the capacity building training on awareness of diversification of the income sources and credits facilities in Itang special district.


2020 ◽  
pp. 613-636 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oluwakemi Adeola Obayelu ◽  
Olusayo Olubisi Idowu

Evidence of upsurge in food insecurity incidence and its vulnerability of households in both rural and urban areas in Nigeria has led to enquiries about the richness of available food baskets and evenness of their consumption. The objective of this study was to examine the dietary diversity among rural households in Nigeria from a gender perspective. Data from the Living Standard Measurement Survey- Integrated Survey on Agriculture (lsms-isa) 2016 were analysed using Simpson Diversity Index, Cross tabulation and Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition. Most of the rural households were male-headed (85%) with an average age of 53 years old and had household size of 8 persons. Dietary diversity score was slightly higher in female-headed households than among their male counterparts. Fish and seafood had the highest food share expenditure among female-headed households while cereals had the highest in male-headed households. Low dietary diversity was predominant among households where the head was 31 to 40 years old male with at least 16 members, while the high dietary diversity was highest among households with 51 to 60 years old female heads and 11 to 15 members. Difference in mean of aggregate dietary diversity between male- and female-headed households revealed a gap of 0.0155 in favour of the female-headed households. There were significant gender differences in household endowments such as household size, income, tangible assets owned and farm size, which explained dietary diversity among rural households in Nigeria.


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