scholarly journals Nutritional implications of dietary patterns in Mali

2020 ◽  
pp. 177-193
Author(s):  
Melinda Smale ◽  
◽  
Veronique Theriault ◽  
Ryan Vroegindewey ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Dietary Diversity ◽  
Processed Foods ◽  
Diet Diversity ◽  
Farm Production ◽  
Eastern And Southern Africa ◽  
On Farm ◽  
Household Dietary Diversity ◽  
Food Consumed

Mali’s population is experiencing lifestyle and dietary changes that are driven in part by urbanisation and income growth. Utilising two large-scale datasets, we bring new empirical evidence regarding whether Malians are shifting toward highly processed foods, meals purchased away from home, and sugary foods. We find that on-farm production represents only 25% of the food consumed by rural households during the hungry season, and 36% after harvest. Processed food shares are greater in urban (60%) than in rural areas (48%), and considerably higher overall than those reported for Eastern and Southern Africa, but with a lower portion of highly processed foods and negligible shares of meals consumed outside the home. Average household dietary diversity scores are higher in urban than in rural areas. Women’s and household diet diversity varies by season in both locations. About half of farm women interviewed did not meet minimum adequate dietary diversity during the lean season.

scholarly journals Market Access, Production Diversity, and Diet Diversity: Evidence From India

2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Soumya Gupta ◽  
Naveen Sunder ◽  
Prabhu L. Pingali
Keyword(s):  
Food Consumption ◽  
Market Integration ◽  
Dietary Diversity ◽  
Recall Period ◽  
Food Groups ◽  
Diet Diversity ◽  
Farm Production ◽  
Field Level ◽  
Production Diversity ◽  
On Farm

Background: Recent literature, largely from Africa, shows mixed effects of own-production on diet diversity. However, the role of own-production, relative to markets, in influencing food consumption becomes more pronounced as market integration increases. Objective: This paper investigates the relative importance of two factors - production diversity and household market integration - for the intake of a nutritious diet by women and households in rural India. Methods: Data analysis is based on primary data from an extensive agriculture-nutrition survey of 3600 Indian households that was collected in 2017. Dietary diversity scores are constructed for women and households is based on 24-hour and 7-day recall periods. Household market integration is measured as monthly household expenditure on key non-staple food groups. We measure production diversity in two ways - field-level and on-farm production diversity - in order to account for the cereal centric rice-wheat cropping system found in our study locations. The analysis is based on Ordinary Least Squares regressions where we control for a variety of village, household, and individual level covariates that affect food consumption, and village fixed effects. Robustness checks are done by way of using a Poisson regression specifications and 7-day recall period. Results: Conventional measures of field-level production diversity, like the number of crops or food groups grown, have no significant association with diet diversity. In contrast, it is on-farm production diversity (the field-level cultivation of pulses and on-farm livestock management, and kitchen gardens in the longer run) that is significantly associated with improved dietary diversity scores, thus suggesting the importance of non-staples in improving both individual and household dietary diversity. Furthermore, market purchases of non-staples like pulses and dairy products are associated with a significantly higher dietary diversity. Other significant determinants of dietary diversity include women’s literacy and awareness of nutrition. These results mostly remain robust to changes in the recall period of the diet diversity measure and the nature of the empirical specification. Conclusions: This study contributes to the scarce empirical evidence related to diets in India. Additionally, our results indicate some key intervention areas - promoting livestock rearing, strengthening households’ market integration (for purchase of non-staples) and increasing women’s awareness about nutrition. These are more impactful than raising production diversity.

scholarly journals Analyzing the Drivers of Household Dietary Diversity: Evidence from Burkina Faso

2021 ◽  
pp. 037957212110290
Author(s):  
Arkadeep Bandyopadhyay ◽  
Beliyou Haile ◽  
Carlo Azzarri ◽  
Jérôme Somé
Keyword(s):  
Burkina Faso ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Dietary Diversity ◽  
Parameter Estimates ◽  
Health Value ◽  
Food Items ◽  
Farm Production ◽  
Production Diversity ◽  
On Farm ◽  
Household Dietary Diversity

Background: The diets of millions of poor individuals lack adequate amount of essential nutrients. Objective: To examine the determinants of household dietary diversity in Burkina Faso and assess whether the choice of a diversity metric matters. Methods: Using survey data from 2014, we construct 3 metrics—Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS), Berry Index (BI), and Healthy Food Diversity Index (HFDI). Unlike the oft-used HDDS, the BI captures the quantity distribution of food items while the HFDI captures all 3 aspects of a healthy diet—count, quantity distribution, and health value. We fit linear (for BI and HFDI) and Poisson (for HDDS) models controlling for several socioeconomic and climatic covariates. Results: Some parameter estimates are sensitive to the diversity metric with fewer significant covariates observed in the HFDI model. Overall, diets are more diverse for households in urban areas, with female or better educated heads, with higher asset-based wealth and with more diverse on-farm production, while remoteness reduces dietary diversity. Higher precipitation seems to reduce diversity, potentially driven by the spatial heterogeneity in precipitation and on-farm production diversity. Conclusions: The sensitivity of estimates to the metric used underscores potentially more complex interactions that determine the quantity distribution of food items consumed. Policies that enhance on-farm production diversity, market access, and women’s empowerment may help improve dietary diversity and subsequent nutritional benefits. Efforts should be made to compile health value data that are relevant to developing countries facing nutrition transition.

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

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 170-177
Author(s):  
Kanchan Kattel ◽  
Rejina Maskey Byanju ◽  
Kishor Atreya
Keyword(s):  
Food System ◽  
Dietary Diversity ◽  
Leafy Vegetables ◽  
Farm Income ◽  
Food Groups ◽  
Food Diary ◽  
Chi Square ◽  
Farm Production ◽  
Production Diversity ◽  
Household Dietary Diversity

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.

scholarly journals Agricultural seasonality, market access, and food security in Sierra Leone

Food Security ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isaac Bonuedi ◽  
Lukas Kornher ◽  
Nicolas Gerber
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Food Consumption ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Market Access ◽  
Dietary Diversity ◽  
Food Markets ◽  
Nutrition Security ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Household Dietary Diversity

AbstractSeasonal 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.

scholarly journals Who lacks and who benefits from diet diversity: evidence from (impact) profiling for children in Zimbabwe

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Remco Oostendorp ◽  
Lia van Wesenbeeck ◽  
Ben Sonneveld ◽  
Precious Zikhali
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Child Nutrition ◽  
Treatment Effects ◽  
Dietary Diversity ◽  
Parametric Method ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Diet Diversity ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Matching Techniques ◽  
Non Parametric

Abstract Background The impact of diet diversity—defined as the number of different foods or food groups consumed over a given reference period—on child nutrition outcomes strongly interacts with agro-ecological, institutional, and socio-economic drivers of child food and nutrition security. Yet, the literature on the impact of diet diversity typically estimates average treatment effects, largely ignoring impact heterogeneity among different groups. Methods In this paper, we introduce a new method of profiling to identify groups of treatment units that stand to gain the most from a given intervention. We start from the ‘polling approach’ which provides a fully flexible (non-parametric) method to profile vulnerability patterns (patterns in ‘needs’) across highly heterogeneous environments [35]. Here we combine this polling methodology with matching techniques to identify ‘impact profiles’ showing how impact varies across non-parametric profiles. We use this method to explore the potential for improving child nutrition outcomes, in particular stunting, through targeted improvements in dietary diversity in a physically and socio-economically diverse country, namely Zimbabwe. Complex interaction effects with agro-ecological, institutional and socio-economic conditions are accounted for. Finally, we analyze whether targeting interventions at the neediest (as identified by the polling approach) will also create the largest benefits. Results The dominant profile for stunted children is that they are young (6–12 months), live in poorer/poorest households, in rural areas characterized by significant sloping of the terrain and with one-sided emphasis on maize cultivation and medium dry conditions. When moving from “need” to “maximal impact”, we calculate both the coverage in “need” as well as the impact coverage, and find that targeting on need does not always provide the largest impact. Conclusions Policy-makers need to remain alert that targeting on need is not always the same as targeting on impact. Estimation of heterogeneous treatment effects allows for more efficient targeting. It also enhances the external validity of the estimated impact findings, as the impact of child diet diversity on stunting depends on various agro-ecological variables, and policy-makers can relate these findings to areas outside our study area with similar agro-ecological conditions.

scholarly journals Are Women in Rural India Really Consuming a Less Diverse Diet?

2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 318-331
Author(s):  
Soumya Gupta ◽  
Naveen Sunder ◽  
Prabhu L. Pingali
Keyword(s):  
Vitamin A ◽  
Fruits And Vegetables ◽  
Dietary Diversity ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Rural India ◽  
Food Groups ◽  
Diet Diversity ◽  
Household Members ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Food Consumed

Background: It is widely considered that women have less diverse diets than other household members. However, it has been challenging to establish this empirically since women’s diet diversity is measured differently from that of other household members. Objective: In this article, we compare women’s dietary diversity with that of their respective households and thereby generate a measure of “dietary gap.” Methods: We measure women’s “dietary gap” by using the difference of homogenized household and woman dietary scores (using the same scales). This is done using primary data on 3600 households from 4 districts in India. Additionally, we show the robustness of our results to variations in scale and recall periods used to construct the diet diversity scores. Results: Mean difference tests indicate that women consistently consume 0.1 to 0.5 fewer food groups relative to other household members, with the results being statistically significant at the 1% level. The food groups driving this dietary gap are nonstaples like Vitamin A-rich fruits and vegetables, meat/fish/poultry, and dairy. Conclusions: Results point toward the discrimination faced by women in the variety of the food consumed, the importance of considering comparability in creating indices of diet diversity, and the need to collect more detailed information on diets. To our knowledge, this is one of the first studies to examine dietary discrimination faced by women using common scales.

scholarly journals Farm Production Diversity: Is It Important for Dietary Diversity? Panel Data Evidence from Uganda

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 1028
Author(s):  
Haruna Sekabira ◽  
Shamim Nalunga
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Dietary Diversity ◽  
Gender Effects ◽  
Household Food Security ◽  
Impact Pathways ◽  
Farm Production ◽  
Food Expenditure ◽  
Food Security And Nutrition ◽  
Production Diversity ◽  
Household Dietary Diversity

The substantial existence of malnutrition globally, especially in developing countries, has usually driven policy initiatives to focus on improving household food security and nutrition primarily through prioritizing farm production diversity. Although indeed some empirical evidence has pointed to farm production diversity remedying malnutrition, other evidence has pointed to markets. Therefore, evidence is mixed and may be country or region variant. To contribute to closing such a gap in the literature, we used three waves of national panel survey data from Uganda and panel regression models to investigate associations between farm production diversity and dietary diversity, as well as impact pathways. We found that farm production diversity was positively and significantly associated with household dietary diversity. Farm production diversity influenced dietary diversity through own farm production, and market consumption food security pathways. The own farm production pathway showed a stronger associated impact. Increasing food expenditure by 1000 UGX via own farm production yielded an eight percentage point increment in household dietary diversity, while an equal expenditure via markets yielded a 5.3 percentage point increment. We also found existence of gender effects. Male headed households were associated with relatively poorer household dietary diversity. These findings could have broader implications for countries practicing smallholder agriculture.

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