Speaker
Description
Combining crop diversity and market access to promote dietary diversity and food security: Insights from Smallholder Productivity Promotion Programme in Zambia
Key words: Crop diversity, Market Access, Diets, Food Security, Agricultural Policies, Smallholder farm households
Introduction
Despite significant progress in food availability, over 828 million people still suffer from hunger each night, with smallholder farm households in sub-Saharan Africa particularly affected by factors such as conflicts, economic shocks, and climate extremes (FAO et al., 2023). Recent studies have focused on two main strategies to combat this issue: increasing on-farm crop diversity and improving market access (Jones, 2017; Sibhatu et al., 2015; Sibhatu and Qaim, 2018). While some studies advocate for prioritizing on-farm diversity for its ecological benefits and smallholders consume a significant portion of the food they produce (Jones, 2017), others argue that addressing market barriers may be more effective in providing diverse and nutritious foods (Sibhatu and Qaim, 2018). However, these two approaches are often viewed as contradictory, overlooking potential synergies between them. Combining on-farm diversity with enhanced market participation could lead to better household diets and food security, thus challenging the notion of inherent antagonism. This raises the following question: Can a combined intervention of both strategies offer viable solutions to hunger and malnutrition in smallholder farm households?
Objectives
This study aims to investigate the potential synergistic effects of combined interventions in crop diversity and market participation on enhancing the dietary diversity and food security of smallholder farm households. Building upon Sibhatu et al.'s (2022) assertion of the positive impact of boosting both agricultural production and market access, our research extends this analysis by examining the interplay between on-farm crop diversity and market access.
Methods
This study uses IFAD’s Smallholder Productivity Promotion Programme (S3P), implemented in Zambia between 2015 and 2019, as an empirical context. Utilizing secondary data and geospatial information collected pre-project, we employ a two-stage propensity score matching (PSM) procedure to randomly select treated and control households from their respective populations. To assess the impact of S3P on crop diversity (measured by crop species count and Gini index), market access (measured by crop market access (dummy), share of sales value in the total value of production (0-1), revenue from crop sales (log, USD), if cassava is sold as chips (1=yes) and participation in farmer organizations (1=Yes)), household diversity (household dietary diversity score of 12 food groups - HDDS), and food security (measured by months of adequate household food provision, MAHFP), we estimate the average treatment effect on the treated (ATET). We estimate the program's impact using Inverse Probability Weighting and Regression Adjustment (IPWRA) to address endogeneity concerns.
Findings
Descriptive Results
Analysis of dietary outcome variables reveals that beneficiary households demonstrated significantly higher scores across all indicators than non-beneficiaries. Beneficiaries reported higher food consumption diversity, with an average HDDS of 8.3, indicating access to over eight food groups over a seven-day period. Additionally, beneficiary households experienced a longer period of adequate food provision annually than non-beneficiaries, with a surplus of about two and a half months.
Market access variables also exhibited significant differences between beneficiary and non-beneficiary households, with beneficiaries demonstrating higher values across all indicators. This suggests that S3P participation not only enhances own production but also improves economic access to food through increased engagement in agricultural markets and farmer organizations.
Promoting Crop Diversity and Market Participation
Regression estimates indicate significant positive effects of S3P on crop production diversity and market participation among beneficiary households. In particular, beneficiary households exhibited a 13% increase in total crop production value compared to non-beneficiary households. Additionally, beneficiaries showed higher yields and increased crop diversification, implying enhanced availability of diverse foods from their own production.
Similarly, S3P beneficiaries experienced improvements in market access, with a 10-percentage point increase in the probability of selling crops and a 39% increase in revenue from agricultural sales compared to non-beneficiaries. These findings highlight the programme’s success in facilitating both production and marketing activities, ultimately contributing to enhanced dietary diversity and food security.
Role of Crop Diversity and Market Access
Exploratory analysis reveals significant positive associations between crop diversity and market access indicators, dietary diversity, and food security. Increased crop species count and crop harvest are correlated with higher HDDS and MAHFP, emphasizing the importance of diversified production for improved nutrition outcomes.
Similarly, market access indicators such as the share of agricultural sales are positively associated with HDDS and MAHFP, underscoring the significance of market engagement in enhancing household food and nutritional security.
Conclusion
Our findings suggest that both production diversity and market access pathways play complementary roles in improving food and nutrition security among smallholder households, advocating their joint promotion of food insecurity and malnutrition alleviation efforts. Contrary to viewing production diversity and market participation as opposing pathways to improving dietary diversity and food security, our findings advocate for their combined implementation. Particularly in rural areas of low- and middle-income countries where market failures inhibit specialization, promoting crop diversification alongside market incentives emerges as a crucial strategy for alleviating malnutrition and food insecurity.
References
- FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP, WHO, 2023. The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2023. FAO, Rome, Italy.
- Jones, A.D., 2017. Critical review of the emerging research evidence on agricultural biodiversity, diet diversity, and nutritional status in low- and middle-income countries. Nutr Rev 75, 769–782. https://doi.org/10.1093/nutrit/nux040.
- Sibhatu, K.T., Arslan, A., Zucchini, E., 2022. The effect of agricultural programs on dietary diversity and food security: Insights from the smallholder productivity promotion program in Zambia. Food Policy 113, 102268. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2022.102268.
- Sibhatu, K.T., Krishna, V.V., Qaim, M., 2015. Production diversity and dietary diversity in smallholder farm households. PNAS 112, 10657–10662. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1510982112.
- 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. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2018.04.013.
