The role of agriculture in women’s nutrition: Empirical evidence from India

Abstract

In this paper, we establish a statistically important relationship between household agricultural income and women’s BMI using a five-year panel dataset of rural households drawn from 18 villages across five Indian states. Using within household variation over time, we estimate both the extent to which short-term changes in agricultural income are associated with short-term changes in BMI, and the effect of agricultural income growth on BMI growth over a longer term. Over the longer term, and for the group of households that regularly farm, we find a 10 percentage point agricultural income growth to be associated with a 0.10 percentage point growth in BMI. Consistent with the literature, this effect is economically modest, but important considering that we do not find a corresponding effect for growth in non-agricultural income. We show that both the own-production and market purchase of food are associated with nutritional improvements. While women’s BMI is associated with an increase in the consumption of own-produced cereals, the market plays an important role in facilitating access to more nutritious foods like pulses. Lastly, we also find that effects of agricultural income are driven by younger women, in the age-group 15-25 years, who face a particularly strong nutritional disadvantage in India.

Kidney Stone Composition in Various Country Around the World

“…Consumption of unhealthy foods is still limited in some regions of North Africa and South Asia that maintain dietary patterns with a lower risk of urinary stones forming. Moreover, in some countries the characteristics of family structure and cultural rules still present a nutritional disadvantage for women [35].…”

Food Insecurity and Dietary Intake among Rural Indian Women: An Exploratory Study

“…Women in these roles are unlikely to have ownership and control over land, a factor in the enhancement of livelihoods of rural communities [ 28 ]. The agricultural roles held by women are often poorly- or unremunerated and their contribution is often invisible and unofficial [ 29 ]. Women have long been discriminated in land ownership in the Punjab region where property and wealth are typically passed down the male lineal descendant [ 30 ].…”

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Promoting Statistical Practice and Collaboration in Developing Countries

“…The association of vital statistics and female literacy is well established: Higher literacy rates are associated with lower birth rates and infant mortality rates (Saurabh et al, 2013;Imai et al, 2014;Shetty & Shetty, 2014;Rao & Pingali, 2018).…”