Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Does crop diversity at the village level influence child nutrition security? Evidence from 11 sub-Saharan African countries

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Population and Environment Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Diversifying crop production has been proposed as a means of reducing food and nutrition insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa, but previous empirical studies yield mixed results. Much of this evidence has focused at the household level, but there are plausible reasons to expect that the presence of crop diversity at other scales affects human health. Utilizing data from 11 sub-Saharan African countries housed in the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS)-Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) system, this study assesses the association between village-level crop diversity and both dietary diversity and height-for-age among young children. Our findings indicate that, overall, village-level crop diversity contributes to higher dietary diversity and improved height-for-age and that functional diversity measures best account for nutritional outcomes. These findings provide an important basis for future research to explore the importance of crop diversity at scales beyond the household and to consider other contextual determinants of child health.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. The sampling procedures involve a two-stage selection process, first of the enumeration area and then of households within that area. Within the enumeration area, households are identified within clusters that are georeferenced for the center of the cluster. To maintain confidentiality and protect respondents’ identities, the true coordinates are then randomly displaced up to 2 km for urban sites or 5 km for rural sites (with a small number of rural sites being displaced up to 10 km), and these displaced coordinates are reported in the publicly available files (see DHS 2018a for details).

  2. The Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS)-Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) system is developed and maintained by the University of Minnesota Population Center.

  3. Geospatial covariates have only been calculated for a subset of DHS samples, and in our sample, 2343 individual respondents were excluded because their households exist in clusters for which geospatial covariates were not calculated.

  4. Only some samples in our dataset include anthropometrics for children ages 36–59 months, so we exclude these observations for consistency.

  5. These crops include the following: barley, cassava, cotton, groundnuts, maize, millet, oil palm, potatoes, rapeseed, rice, rye, sorghum, soybeans, sugar beets, sugarcane, sunflowers, and wheat.

  6. Such seasonal variation is less of a concern for our analyses of HAZ since linear growth is a function of chronic undernutrition. We present results of models that include survey-month fixed effects for both outcomes since this represents a conservative approach, but note that our findings are not sensitive to this decision.

References

  • Ahman, I., Khalique, N., Khalil, S., Urfi, & Maroof, M. (2018). Dietary diversity and stunting among infants and young children: a cross-sectional study in Aligarh. Indian Journal of Community Medicine, 43(1), 34–36.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arimond, M., & Ruel, M. T. (2004). Dietary diversity is associated with child nutritional status: evidence from 11 demographic and health surveys. The Journal of Nutrition, 134, 2579–2585.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bakhtsiyarava, M., Grace, K., & Nawrotzki, R. J. (2018). Climate, birth weight, and agricultural livelihoods in Kenya and Mali. American Journal of Public Health, 108(S2), S144–S150.

    Google Scholar 

  • Behrman, J. R. (1993). The economic rationale for investing in nutrition in developing countries. World Development, 21(11), 1749–1771.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bellon, M. R., Ntandou-Bouzitou, G. D., & Caracciolo, F. (2016). On-farm diversity and market participations are positively associated with dietary diversity of rural mothers in Southern Benin, West Africa. PLoS One, 11(9), e0162535.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bernholt, N., Kehlenbeck, K., Gebauer, J., & Buekert, A. (2009). Plant species richness and diversity in urban and per-urban gardens in Niamey, Niger. Agroforestry Systems, 77, 159–179.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berti, P. R., & Jones, A. D. (2013). Biodiversity’s contribution to dietary diversity: magnitude, meaning and measurement. In Diversifying food and diets: using agricultural biodiversity to improve nutrition and health (pp. 186–206). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boyle, E. H., King, M, & Sobek, M. (2018). IPUMS-demographic and health surveys: version 5 [dataset]. IPUMS and ICF International, 2018. https://doi.org/10.18128/D080.V5.

  • Brown, M. E., Grace, K., Shively, G., Johnson, K. B., & Carroll, M. (2014). Using satellite remote sensing and household survey data to assess human health and nutrition response to environmental change. Population and Environment, 36, 48–72.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brush, S. B. (2000). The issues of in situ conservation of crop genetic resources. In Genes in the field: on-farm conservation of crop diversity (pp. 3–26). Rome: International Plant Genetics Resources Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brush, S. B. (2004). Farmers’ bounty: locating crop diversity in the contemporary world. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chinnadurai, M., Karunakaran, K. R., Chandrasekaran, M., Balasubramanian, R., & Umanath, M. (2016). Examining linkage between dietary pattern and crop diversification: an evidence from Tamil Nadu. Agricultural Economics Review, 29, 149–160.

    Google Scholar 

  • DHS. (2018a). What we do: methodology. The Demographic and Health Surveys Program, United States Agency for International Development. https://dhsprogram.com/What-We-Do/methodology.cfm. Accessed 19 Oct 2019.

  • DHS. (2018b). Nutrition of children and adults. Guide to DHS statistics-7. The Demographic and Health Surveys Program, United States Agency for International Development. https://dhsprogram.com/Data/Guide-to-DHS-Statistics/index.cfm.Accessed 19 Oct 2019.

  • Ecker, O. (2018). Agricultural transformation and food and nutrition security in Ghana: does farm production diversity (still) matter for household dietary diversity? Food Policy, 79, 271–282.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ekesa, B. N., Walingo, M. K., & Abukutsa-Onyango, M. O. (2008). Influence of agricultural biodiversity on dietary diversity of preschool children in Matungu Division, Western Kenya. African Journal of Food Agriculture Nutrition and Development, 8(4), 390–404.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elkies, N., Fink, G., & Bärnighausen, T. (2015). “Scrambling” geo-referenced data to protect privacy induces bias in distance estimation. Population and Environment, 37(1), 83–98.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fanzo, J. C. (2017). Decisive decisions on production compared with market strategies to improve diets in rural Arica. The Journal of Nutrition, 147(1), 1–2.

    Google Scholar 

  • FAO. (2004). Building on gender, agrobiodiversity and local knowledge. Rome: United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

    Google Scholar 

  • FAO. (2010). Guidelines for measuring household and individual dietary diversity. Rome: United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

    Google Scholar 

  • FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP, & WHO. (2019). The state of food security and nutrition in the world 2019: safeguarding against economic slowdowns and downturns. Rome: FAO.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frison, E. A., Cherfas, J., & Hodgin, T. (2011). Agricultural biodiversity is essential for a sustainable improvement in food and nutrition security. Sustainability, 2, 238–253.

    Google Scholar 

  • Galway, L. P., Acharya, Y., & Jones, A. D. (2018). Deforestation and child diet diversity: a geospatial analysis of 15 sub-Saharan African countries. Health & Place, 51, 78–88.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grace, K., Davenport, F., Funk, C., & Lerner, A. M. (2012). Child malnutrition and climate in sub-Saharan Africa: an analysis of recent trends in Kenya. Applied Geography, 35(1–2), 405–413.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grace, K., Brown, M., & McNally, A. (2014). Examining the link between food prices and food insecurity: a multi-level analysis of maize price and birthweight in Kenya. Food Policy, 46, 56–65.

    Google Scholar 

  • Graddy, T. G. (2013). Regarding biocultural heritage: in situ political ecology of agricultural biodiversity in the Peruvian Andes. Agriculture and Human Values, 30, 587–604.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoddinott, J. (2012). Agriculture, health, and nutrition: toward conceptualizing the linkages. In Reshaping agriculture for nutrition and health (pp. 13–20). Washington, DC: IFPRI.

    Google Scholar 

  • IFAD. (2016). Rural development report 2016. Rome: IFAD.

    Google Scholar 

  • IFPRI. (2016). Global nutrition report 2016: from promise to impact: ending malnutrition by 2030. Washington, DC: IFPRI.

    Google Scholar 

  • IPUMS-DHS. (2018). Using IPUMS-DHS contextual variables. Integrated public use microdata series, Demographic and Health Surveys Program. https://www.idhsdata.org/idhs/contextual_variables_overview.shtml. Accessed 20 Oct 2019.

  • Islam, A. H., von Braun, J., Thorne-Lyman, A. L., & Ahmed, A. U. (2018). Farm diversification and food and nutrition security in Bangladesh: empirical evidence from nationally representative household panel data. Food Security, 10, 701–720.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones, A. D. (2017a). Critical review of the emerging research evidence on agricultural biodiversity, diet diversity, and nutritional status in low- and middle-income countries. Nutrition Reviews, 75(10), 769–782.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones, A. D. (2017b). On-farm crop species richness is associated with household diet diversity and quality in subsistence- and market-oriented farming households in Malawi. The Journal of Nutrition, 147(1), 86–96.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones, A. D., Shrinivas, A., & Bezner-Kerr, R. (2014). Farm production diversity is associated with greater household dietary diversity in Malawi: findings from nationally representative data. Food Policy, 46, 1–12.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones, A. D., Creed-Kanshiro, H., Zimmerer, K. S., de Haan, S., Carrasco, M., Meza, K., Cruz-Garcia, G. S., Tello, M., Amaya, F., Marin, R. M., & Ganoza, L. (2018). Farm-level agricultural biodiversity in the Peruvian Andes is associated with greater odds of women achieving a minimally diverse and micronutrient adequate diet. The Journal of Nutrition, 148, 1625–1637.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kahane, R., Hodgkin, T., Jaenicke, H., Hoogendoorn, C., Hermann, M., Keatinge, J. D. H., d’Arros Hughes, J., Padulosi, S., & Looney, N. (2013). Agrobiodiversity for food security, health and income. Agronomy for Sustainable Development, 33(4), 671–693.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kavitha, K., Soumitra, P., & Padmaja, R. (2016). Understanding the linkages between crop diversity and household dietary diversity in the semi-arid regions of India. Agricultural Economics Research Review, 29, 129–137.

    Google Scholar 

  • Khoury, C. K., Bjorkman, A. D., Dempewof, H., Ramirez-Villegas, J., Guarino, L., Jarvis, A., Riesenberg, L. H., & Struik, P. C. (2014). Increasing homogeneity in global food supplies and the implications for food security. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(11), 4001–4006.

    Google Scholar 

  • Koppmair, S., Kassie, M., & Qaim, M. (2017). Farm production, market access and dietary diversity in Malawi. Public Health Nutrition, 20(2), 325–335.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kumar, N., Harris, J., & Rawat, R. (2015). If they grow it, will they eat and grow? Evidence from Zambia on agricultural diversity and child undernutrition. Journal of Development Studies, 51(8), 1060–1077.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kumar, A., Saroj, S., Singh, R. K. P., & Jee, S. (2016). Agricultural diversity, dietary diversity and nutritional intake: an evidence on inter-linkages from village level studies in Eastern India. Agricultural Economics Research Review, 29, 15–29.

    Google Scholar 

  • M’Kaibi, F. K., Steyn, N. P., Ochola, S. A., & Du Plessis, L. (2017). The relationship between agricultural biodiversity, dietary diversity, household food security, and stunting of children in rural Kenya. Food Science & Nutrition, 5(2), 243–254.

  • Mayala, B., Fish, T.D., Eitelberg, D., & Dontamsetti, T. (2018). The DHS program geospatial.

    Google Scholar 

  • Monfreda, C., Ramankutty, N., & Foley, J. A. (2008). Farming the planet. Part 2: geographic distribution of crop areas, yields, physiological types, and net primary production in the year 2000. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 22, GB1022.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morris, S. S. (1999). Measuring nutritional dimensions of household food security. Technical guide #5. Washington, D.C.: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

    Google Scholar 

  • Morris, E. K., Caruso, T., Buscot, F., Fischer, M., Hancock, C., Maier, T. S., et al. (2014). Choosing and using diversity indices: insights for ecological applications from the German biodiversity exploratories. Ecology and Evolution, 4, 3514–3524.

    Google Scholar 

  • NAS. (2007). Contributions of land remote sensing for decisions about food security and human health: workshop report. Workshop Report, National Academy of Sciences. Washington, D.C.: The National Academies Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nelson, A. (2008). Estimated travel time to the nearest city of 50,000 or more people in year 2000. Data set, Joint Research Centre, European Commission. http://forobs.jrc.ec.europa.eu/products/gam/. Accessed 19 Oct 2019.

  • Ng’endo, M., Bhagwat, S., & Keding, G. B. (2016). Influence of seasonal on-farm diversity on dietary diversity: a case study of smallholder farming households in Western Kenya. Ecology of Food and Nutrition, 55(5), 403–427.

    Google Scholar 

  • OECD/FAO. (2016). Agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa: prospects and challenges for the next decade. In OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook (pp. 2016–2025). Paris: OECD Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oksanen, J., Blanchet, F. G., Friendly, M., Kindt, R., Legendre, P., & McGlinn, P. R., et al. (2018). Vegan: community ecology package. R package version 2.5-2. Available at: https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=vegan.

  • Oyarzun, P. J., Borja, R. M., Sherwood, S., & Parra, V. (2013). Making sense of agrobiodiversity, diet, and intensification of smallholder family farming in the highland Andes of Ecuador. Ecology of Food and Nutrition, 52(6), 515–541.

  • Pinstrup-Andersen, P. (2013). Can agriculture meet future nutrition challenges? European Journal of Development Research, 25, 5–12.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pongou, R., Ezzati, M., & Salomon, J. A. (2006). Household and community socioeconomic and environmental determinant of child nutritional status in Cameroon. BMC Public Health, 6, 98.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rah, J. H., Akhter, N., Semba, R. D., de Pee, S., Bloem, M. W., Cambell, A. A., Moench-Pfanner, R., Sun, K., Badham, J., & Kraemer, K. (2010). Low dietary diversity is a predictor of child stunting in rural Bangladesh. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 64, 1393–1398.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rajendran, S., Afari-Sefa, V., Shee, A., Bocher, T., Bekunda, M., Dominick, I., & Lukumay, P. J. (2017). Does crop diversity contribute to dietary diversity? Evidence from integration of vegetables into maize-based farming systems. Agriculture & Food Security, 6, 50.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ramankutty, N., Evan, A. T., Monfreda, C., & Foley, J. A. (2008). Farming the plant: 1. Geographic distribution of global agricultural lands in the year 2000. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 22, GB1003.

    Google Scholar 

  • Remans, R., Flynn, D. F. B., DeClerck, F., Diru, W., Fanzo, J., Gaynor, K., Lambrecht, I., Mudipoe, J., Mutuo, P. K., Nkhoma, P., Siriri, D., Sullivan, C., & Palm, C. A. (2011). Assessing nutritional diversity of cropping systems in African villages. PLoS One, 6(6), e21235.

    Google Scholar 

  • Remans, R., Wood, S. A., Saha, N., Anderman, T. L., & DeFries, R. S. (2014). Measuring nutritional diversity of national food supplies. Global Food Security, 3, 174–182.

    Google Scholar 

  • Remans, R., DeClerck, F. A. J., Kennedy, G., & Fanzo, J. (2015). Expanding the view on the production and dietary diversity link: scale, function, and change over time. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(45), 46082.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ruel, M. T., & Alderman, H. (2013). Nutrition-sensitive interventions and programmes: how can they help to accelerate progress in improving maternal and child nutrition? Lancet, 382(9891), 10–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schipanski, M. E., MacDonal, G. K., Rosenweig, S., Chapell, M. J., Bennett, E. M., Bzener Kerr, R., Blesh, J., Crews, T., Drinkwater, L., Lundgren, J. G., & Schnarr, C. (2016). Realizing resilient food system. BioScience, 66, 600–610.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shively, G., & Sununtnasuk, C. (2015). Agricultural diversity and child stunting in Nepal. Journal of Development Studies, 51(8), 1078–1096.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sibhatu, K. T., & Qaim, M. (2018). Review: meta-analysis of the association between production diversity, diets, and nutrition in smallholder farm households. Food Policy, 77, 1–18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sibhatu, K. T., Krishna, V. V., & Qaim, M. (2015). Production diversity and dietary diversity in smallholder farm households. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(34), 10657–10662.

    Google Scholar 

  • Somé, J. W., & Jones, A. D. (2018). The influence of crop production and socioeconomic factors on seasonal household dietary diversity in Burkina Faso. PLoS One, 13(5), e0195685.

    Google Scholar 

  • Swindale, A., & Bilinsky, P. (2006). Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS) measurement of household food access: indicator guide, version 2. FANTA III Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance. Washington, DC: USAID.

  • USDA. (2018). USDA food composition databases. Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/. Accessed 19 Oct 2019.

  • Vanek, S. J., Jones, A. D., & Drinkwater, L. E. (2016). Coupling of soil regeneration, food security, and nutrition outcomes in Andean subsistence agroecosystems. Food Security, 8, 727–742.

    Google Scholar 

  • WHO. (2007). Protein and amino acid requirements in human nutrition. In WHO technical report series 935. Geneva: World Health Organization.

    Google Scholar 

  • WHO. (2008). Indicators for assessing infant and young child feeding practices: part 1: definitions. Geneva: World Health Organization.

    Google Scholar 

  • WHO & UNICEF. (2009). WHO child growth standards and the identification of severe acute malnutrition in infants and children. In Joint Statement by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund. Geneva: World Health Organization.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wood, S. A. (2017). Nutritional functional trait diversity of crops in south-eastern Senegal. Journal of Applied Ecology, 55, 81–91.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Funding

Jones received support from the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (under funding received from the National Science Foundation DBI-1639145). Thiede received assistance provided by the Population Research Institute at Penn State University, which is supported by an infrastructure grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (P2CHD041025).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Community Development and Applied Economics, 101 Morrill Hall, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, 05404, USA

    Daniel Tobin

  2. National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC), University of Maryland-College Park, Annapolis, MD, 21401, USA

    Kristal Jones

  3. Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology, and Education, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    Brian C. Thiede

Authors
  1. Daniel Tobin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Kristal Jones
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Brian C. Thiede
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Daniel Tobin.

Ethics declarations

Disclaimer

No financial interest or benefits exist for us in the application of this research. Mistakes and omissions that may have been made are solely our responsibility.

Additional information

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Electronic supplementary material

ESM 1

(DOCX 28 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Tobin, D., Jones, K. & Thiede, B.C. Does crop diversity at the village level influence child nutrition security? Evidence from 11 sub-Saharan African countries. Popul Environ 41, 74–97 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11111-019-00327-4

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11111-019-00327-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation