Analyzing the Contribution of Crop Diversification in Improving Household Nutrition Security Among Wheat-dominated Rural Households in Sinana District, Bale Zone, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia.

Abstract

The long-term impact of malnutrition on people’s lives, most notably in health, education, and productivity, highly affects the human capital. Agriculture directly contributes to nutrition security by enabling farm households to access micronutrient food by using their farm income. This study was intended to assess effect of crop diversification on household nutrition security and explores determinants of under-five child malnutrition among rural farm households of Sinana Woreda, Oromia regional state. Multi-stage sampling followed by a systematic random sampling technique was used to include study subjects. Structured questionnaire, focus group discussions (FGDs) and key informant interview was used to collect data. Anthropometric measurements were collected and converted into Z-scores by WHO Anthro version 3.2.2., 2011 software. Then exported to STATA and analyzed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Pearson Correlation coefficients was calculated to see the correlation of the nutrition security status indicators and crop diversification index. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression was carried out to identify factors associated with child nutrition. The result revealed that the prevalence of malnutrition particularly, stunting was (23.81%), underweight (21.16%) and wasting (9.52%), respectively. The correlation coefficient indicates that crop diversification is negatively correlated with stunting and wasting and positively correlated with underweight and child dietary diversity score. Multivariate logistic regression model indicate that child nutritional status is strongly associated with age of household head, maternal and parental education, farm land size, TLU, availability of potable water, child sex, child dietary diversity, household access to toilet, total annual income, and household access to health services. In conclusion, policy and development interventions should target intensive agricultural production, development of rural infrastructure, education and awareness creation tools to provide households up to date nutritional knowledge and agricultural technologies to increase production and income, and thereby enhance household nutrition security.

Sustainable Food Consumption and Production in the 21st Century

“…Consistent with prior studies, we identified a strong positive correlation between CDI and DDS at the district level (Dabo et al, 2013;Singh et al, 2020;Dereje et al, 2021;Derso et al, 2021;Mengistu et al, 2021;Azupogo et al, 2023). There is empirical support for a beneficial link between crop diversity and dietary diversity, which two distinct mechanisms may mediate: (1) by providing a farmer's household with a variety of food groups to consume and ( 2) by providing a variety of crops that can be sold to the market to generate income that is used to purchase a wider variety of foods from markets (Achterbosch et al, 2014;Hill and Vigneri, 2014;Ntakyo and van den Berg, 2019;Baker et al, 2020;Soukand et al, 2020).…”

Do crop diversity and livestock production improve smallholder intra-household dietary diversity, nutrition and sustainable food production? Empirical evidence from Pakistan

“…Consistent with prior studies, we identified a strong positive correlation between CDI and DDS at the district level (Dabo et al, 2013;Singh et al, 2020;Dereje et al, 2021;Derso et al, 2021;Mengistu et al, 2021;Azupogo et al, 2023). There is empirical support for a beneficial link between crop diversity and dietary diversity, which two distinct mechanisms may mediate: (1) by providing a farmer's household with a variety of food groups to consume and (2) by providing a variety of crops that can be sold to the market to generate income that is used to purchase a wider variety of foods from markets (Achterbosch et al, 2014;Hill and Vigneri, 2014;Ntakyo and van den Berg, 2019;Baker et al, 2020;Soukand et al, 2020).…”