Agriculture, nutrition and gender in India

The South Asian region has one of the highest rates of child and maternal undernutrition in the world. Undernutrition is widespread and persistent even in India despite its relatively strong economic performance and is particularly high in rural areas and among those in agriculture based livelihoods. Though agriculture has the enormous potential to contribute to improvements in undernutrition, the evidence so far in the Indian context demonstrates weak linkages between agriculture and nutrition . This research brief summarises the key findings from the different studies focusing on women’s agency and nutrition undertaken by LANSA in India.Department for International Development (DFID)UKAI

Agriculture-nutrition linkages and child undernutrition in India

The South Asian region and in particular India, has one of the highest rates of child undernutrition in the world, and is home to around 40 per cent of the global total of children who are stunted. Child stunting has been shown to have severe lifelong economic, health, and cognitive disadvantages and costs. Despite improvements in some states in recent years, the levels continue to be high. Understanding the reasons for the high prevalence of child undernutrition in India in the face of the relatively strong economic performance has emerged as an important research topic and is an area of focus of LANSA’s research in the region. Under the research theme, ‘How enabling is the wider context in linking agriculture and food systems to other determinants of nutritional status?’, LANSA research in India focuses on understanding the barriers and facilitators to nutrition-sensitive agricultural development in the country. The analyses and empirical work on the available large secondary datasets from India are expected to elaborate on the pathways that connect agriculture and nutrition and the type and degree of interaction with other non-food drivers. This research brief summarises the key findings from some of the studies undertaken by LANSA partners, on agriculture-nutrition linkages and child undernutrition in India.Department for International Development (DFID)UKAI

Operationalizing the concept of farming system for nutrition through the promotion of nutrition-sensitive agriculture

Despite impressive gains in agricultural production and greater availability of food many people in India suffer from undernutrition. Improvements in agricultural production that lead to greater access to nutritious food could help combat undernutrition. This article in Current Science shares a new farming model to promote improved nutrition outcomes amongst vulnerable farming communities. Five villages in Wardha district of Maharashtra have been selected for the study to evaluate the effectiveness of the farming system for nutrition (FSN) approach. The programme includes on farm demonstrations of arable crops and community nutrition gardens of vegetables and fruits (managed by women). A wide range of nutritious vegetables were promoted in the nutrition gardens to ensure availability to the households in the selected communities.UK AidDepartment for International Development (DFID

Gender, Agriculture, and Nutrition in South Asia: Conceptualising the Links

Even with higher economic growth and an overall reduction in poverty, there exists child undernutrition, maternal undernutrition and diverse forms of micro nutrient deficiencies – a phenomenon labelled as the South Asian Paradox. Eradicating undernutrition requires a dedicated effort to alleviating child undernutrition, as South Asia accounts for forty percent of the world’s undernourished children. Agricultural growth, by enabling farming households to grow more/better food for self-consumption, and opening opportunities for employment, can contribute importantly to this process. This brief sets out the conceptual starting points for LANSA research on the gender-agriculture pathways to improve nutritional outcomes.Department for International Development (DFID)UKAI

National Plan of Action for Children (NPAC) 2016

The National Policy for Children 2013 adopted by the Government of India in April 2013, adheres to the Constitutional mandate and guiding principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). It identifies rights of children under four key priority areas, viz. Survival, Health and Nutrition, Education and Development, Protection, and Participation. This policy Brief looks at the Draft National Plan of Action for Children (NPAC) Key Priority Area 1: Survival, Health and Nutrition, making policy recommendations.Department for International Development (DFID)UKAI

Dietary Diversity and Women’s BMI among Farm Households in Rural India

Undernutrition is more widespread and persistent in South Asia, including India, with higher numbers of undernourished people living in rural areas. Indian evidence often shows a weak linkage between agriculture and nutrition, though there is ample scope for agriculture to contribute towards reducing undernutrition. This study probes further to understand the linkage between agriculture, dietary diversity and women’s Body Mass Index (BMI) in rural areas of India, as few studies have looked at household nutritional intake and adult nutrition outcome in this context. In the first part of the analysis, we find that in Indian rural areas, women in cultivator households or those who have a higher share of agricultural incomes have lower rates of undernutrition and it is the women in non-agricultural wage labour households who are worse off. To capture the specific features of agriculture, the second part of the analysis focuses on farm households, wherein dietary diversity reflecting nutrition intake is modeled at the household level, while women’s BMI-capturing nutrition outcome is modeled at the individual level. Instrumental variable quantile regression model is used to estimate the women’s nutritional status with potential endogeneity of dietary diversity. Our findings validate once again that dietary diversity improves with: (a) affordability coming from higher income, better wealth status, larger area under cultivation; (b) access to better diets in a sustained manner, in the form of crop and income diversification, ownership of cows and buffaloes as well as market access to sell the crops; (c) better awareness among households because of the presence of an educated adult member. For improvement in an adult women’s BMI, dietary diversity matters, and an equal importance must be given to environmental conditions like better quality of drinking water, good sanitation, smoke-free cooking area and better access to healthcare facilities. Religion, caste and regional variables also play significant roles in enhancing both intakes and outcomes, while there is evidence for a limited role played by education and empowerment in an individual’s nutrition status once all these variables are controlled for.UK AidDepartment for International Development (DFID

Agriculture and Child Under-Nutrition in India: A State Level Analysis

The literature review on agriculture-child nutrition linkage indicates that the evidence base is weak and inconclusive (Kadiyala et al., 2013). This paper explores the possible linkages between agricultural prosperity with rural child nutrition at the macro level, controlling for sanitation and safe drinking water, using panel data fixed effects and random effects models. The four alternate indicators of agricultural prosperity viz., agricultural growth, worker productivity, land productivity and food grain productionper capita used alternatively enable us to conclude that negative influence of agricultural prosperity on child undernutrition exists, though the influence of various aspects of prosperity on underweight and stunting differ. Other aspects of agriculture considered, such as female agricultural wages help to reinforce the negative influence of agricultural prosperity on underweight in children and the land operational inequality dampens the impact of agricultural prosperity as it increases the incidence of stunting. Water and sanitation help reduce child undernutrition albeit differently on stunting and underweight. The same set of variables seems to influence stunting and underweight differently. Their trajectories seem to differ. The present study enables us to conclude that Indian agricultural growth through higher food grain production and through higher land productivity, when percolates through, labour productivity and higher wages, can reduce child undernutrition in rural India. However, public policy has to promote social provisioning of sanitation and health and make sure that agricultural growth is consistent. Public policy should ensure that growth translates into higher labour productivity and higher wages.UK AidDepartment for International Development (DFID

Child underweight, land productivity and public services: a district-level analysis for India

Though India’s rank has improved in the Global Hunger Index, contributed largely by the fall in the underweight rates for children, concerns of high level of undernutrition in predominantly agricultural pockets remain. This study aims at linking child underweight rates to agricultural land productivity, a proxy for agricultural prosperity, and to the provisioning of public services, using district-level data. The study estimates a three-stage least squares (3SLS) model with a log-linear specification. Unlike many earlier studies, the results indicate a possible positive relationship between agricultural land productivity and child underweight rates. It appears that the district-level analysis is able to capture aspects of agro-climatic conditions, agricultural development and its spillover effects, and public services delivery more effectively when compared to several studies based on household-level survey data. The results clearly show the importance of public health provisioning in terms of vaccination, administration of oral rehydration salts when there is incidence of diarrhoea, government health facilities in rural areas, public provisioning of food, as also maternal health and women’s education. Though their elasticity was small, the variables were significant and it is clear that they may have a bigger impact on the deprived sections of the population. For example, a 1 per cent increase in land productivity increases the percentage of nourished children below six years by about .08 per cent. Similarly, use of oral rehydration salts in diarrhoea incidence improves the underweight rate by about 0.08 per cent at the overall district level. In the parts of the country where underweight rates are high, the impact will be more and the overall magnitude of reduction would be high even if the elasticity is low. The study also shows, in an indirect way, the need for a convergence of agricultural development efforts that create on-farm and off-farm employment with public service delivery of health, sanitation and food. The policy implication is that the state governments should strive to achieve administrative convergence of both agricultural development and public provisioning, paying special attention to safe water supply.UK AidDepartment for International Development (DFID