Accounting for dietary deprivations in rural Africa: Poor households, poor farms or poor food environments?

cg.authorship.typesCGIAR and advanced research instituteen
cg.contributor.affiliationInternational Food Policy Research Instituteen
cg.contributor.affiliationTufts Universityen
cg.contributor.donorCGIAR Trust Funden
cg.contributor.initiativeClimate Resilience
cg.coverage.countryEthiopia
cg.coverage.countryNiger
cg.coverage.countryTanzania
cg.coverage.iso3166-alpha2ET
cg.coverage.iso3166-alpha2NE
cg.coverage.iso3166-alpha2TZ
cg.coverage.regionAfrica
cg.coverage.regionEastern Africa
cg.coverage.regionWestern Africa
cg.creator.identifierOlivier Ecker: 0000-0001-7549-2511
cg.creator.identifierDEREK HEADEY: 0000-0003-2476-5131
cg.creator.identifierAndrew Comstock: 0000-0003-1330-8613
cg.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136770en
cg.identifier.projectIFPRI - Development Strategies and Governance Unit
cg.identifier.projectIFPRI - Systems Transformation - Transformation Strategies
cg.identifier.projectIFPRI - Foresight and Policy Modeling Unit
cg.identifier.publicationRankNot ranked
cg.number2194en
cg.placeWashington, DCen
cg.reviewStatusInternal Reviewen
cg.subject.actionAreaSystems Transformation
cg.subject.impactAreaNutrition, health and food security
dc.contributor.authorBlock, Stevenen
dc.contributor.authorEcker, Olivieren
dc.contributor.authorHeadey, Derek D.en
dc.contributor.authorComstock, Andrew R.en
dc.date.accessioned2023-06-21T20:12:17Zen
dc.date.available2023-06-21T20:12:17Zen
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10568/130802
dc.titleAccounting for dietary deprivations in rural Africa: Poor households, poor farms or poor food environments?en
dcterms.abstractAgricultural and food policies are increasingly asked to do more to improve the dietary quality of populations in lower and middle income countries (LMICs), especially severely malnourished rural populations. However, the appropriate strategy for improving diet quality remains an open question. Agriculture has traditionally focused on food security and poverty reduction, mostly through investments in staple crops, while social protection programs have also sought to improve diets through poverty reduction. Nutrition-sensitive agriculture programs traditionally emphasize farm-level diversification into nutrient-dense crops and/or livestock, combined with nutrition education. More recently, some researchers have moved beyond the farm to assessthe role of market access and local food environments more generally, though little research has focused on food environments in rural Africa. In this study we explore the determinants of a new and improved measure of household diet deprivation(s) that measure consumption gaps for diets as a whole as well as gaps for individual food groups. Using national datasets for rural Nigeria, Ethiopia and Tanzania, we conduct a “racehorse” regression analysis that reveals strong support for the role of wealth in reducing dietary deprivation, evidence that livestock diversification is important but not crop diversification, and indications that local farming systems are also strongly associated with dietary outcomes, but market access indicators are not. While more research is needed, we conclude that the evidence supports strategies that combine income/wealth enhancement objectives with livestock diversification where possible. Evidence on the linkages between food environments and diet quality in rural areas of LMICs is currently too limited and warrants further research of the observational and experimental variety.en
dcterms.accessRightsOpen Access
dcterms.audienceCGIARen
dcterms.available2023
dcterms.bibliographicCitationBlock, Steven; Ecker, Olivier; Headey, Derek D.; and Comstock, Andrew R. 2023. Accounting for dietary deprivations in rural Africa: Poor households, poor farms or poor food environments? IFPRI Discussion Paper 2194. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136770en
dcterms.isPartOfIFPRI Discussion Paperen
dcterms.issued2023-06-16
dcterms.languageen
dcterms.licenseOther
dcterms.publisherInternational Food Policy Research Instituteen
dcterms.relationhttps://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136614en
dcterms.relationhttps://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136680en
dcterms.relationhttps://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136457en
dcterms.relationhttps://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-021-01211-6en
dcterms.relationhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29755-xen
dcterms.replaceshttps://ebrary.ifpri.org/digital/collection/p15738coll2/id/136770en
dcterms.subjectagricultureen
dcterms.subjectagricultural policiesen
dcterms.subjectfood policiesen
dcterms.subjectdieten
dcterms.subjectfood securityen
dcterms.subjectpoverty reductionen
dcterms.subjectcropsen
dcterms.subjectsocial welfareen
dcterms.subjectnutritionen
dcterms.subjectmarket accessen
dcterms.subjectdiversificationen
dcterms.subjectfarming systemsen
dcterms.subjectfood marketsen
dcterms.typeWorking Paper

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