Effects of short birth spacing on birth-order differences in child stunting: Evidence from India.

Do firstborn children have a height advantage? Empirical findings have found mostly that, yes, second or higher-order children often lag behind firstborns in height outcomes, especially in developing countries. However, empirical investigations of birth-order effects on child height overlook the potential impact that birth spacing can have. We provide an explanation for the negative birth-order effect on stunting outcomes for young Indian children and show it is driven by short preceding-birth spacing. We find that firstborn children are taller than children of higher birth order: The height-for-age gap for third (or higher)-order children is twice the gap for children second in birth order. However, this pattern is observed when spacing between later-born children and their immediate elder siblings is fewer than 3 y. Interestingly, the firstborn height advantage disappears when later-born children are born at least 3 y after their elder siblings. Thus, our findings indicate that spacing length between children explains differences in height, over birth order. Although India's family planning policy has resulted in a substantial reduction in total fertility, its achievement in spacing subsequent births has been less impressive. In showing that spacing can alleviate or aggravate birth-order effects on attained height, our study fills an evidence gap: Reducing fertility alone may not be sufficient in overcoming negative birth-order effects. To reduce the detrimental effects of birth order on child stunting, policy responses-and therefore research priorities-require a stronger focus on increasing the time period between births.

Seasonal time trade-offs and nutrition outcomes for women in agriculture: Evidence from rural India.

Women in agriculture are involved in agricultural activities and are solely responsible for household-level unpaid work. They face severe time trade-offs between agricultural and household activities across crop seasons. Recent literature suggests that these time trade-offs may negatively impact their nutrition. However, there is no quantitative evidence exploring this relationship within an agricultural context. This paper addresses this research gap by analyzing the relationship between women's time trade-offs and their nutritional outcomes. Using a unique ten-month primary panel data of 960 women from India, our findings show that women are severely time-constrained, as they contribute significantly to agricultural as well as domestic work. Our results show that during peak seasons relative to lean seasons, women's time trade-offs (rising opportunity cost of time) are negatively associated with the intake of calories, proteins, iron,zinc and Vitamin A. We show that this negative relationship is manifested severely among women who are landless and cultivate paddy alone (food crop) or paddy and cotton (mixed crop). This study highlights the gendered role of agricultural activities in rural households and the need to recognize time as a scarce resource when implementing policies and programs involving women in agriculture. We contribute to the literature of agriculture-nutrition linkages by examining the the time use pathway in detail. Besides providing novel metrics, we discuss several policy implications to reduce women's time constraints and enhance their nutrition.

Monitoring the world's agriculture.

To feed the world without further damaging the planet, Jeffrey Sachs and 24 foodsystem experts call for a global data collection and dissemination network to track the myriad impacts of different farming practices.

Green revolution: impacts, limits, and the path ahead.

A detailed retrospective of the Green Revolution, its achievement and limits in terms of agricultural productivity improvement, and its broader impact at social, environmental, and economic levels is provided. Lessons learned and the strategic insights are reviewed as the world is preparing a "redux" version of the Green Revolution with more integrative environmental and social impact combined with agricultural and economic development. Core policy directions for Green Revolution 2.0 that enhance the spread and sustainable adoption of productivity enhancing technologies are specified.

Leveraging men's education as an effective pathway for improving diet quality: Evidence from rural India.

Investing in nutrition sensitive sectors such as education can be an effective strategy for combatting malnutrition. In this paper we analyze the role that men's education plays in determining dietary diversity outcomes using primary data from 3600 households across four districts of India. Dietary diversity scores were calculated to reflect the quality of food intake, for households and women. Men's education level was considered as the primary driver of diet diversity. To establish a causal link between men's education and diet diversity, the education level of parents and siblings were used as instrumental variables. We find that men's education levels are associated with significantly higher diet diversity scores both for the household and for women. The role of men's education continues to be a significant determinant of diet quality after controlling for household and individual- level confounding factors including the education level of the woman. The results are consistent across different definitions of the diet diversity score and reference period. Methodologically we extend the evidence on the education-nutrition pathway from being associational to causal in nature. Results from this study point to the benefits of leveraging men's education as an effective pathway for improving nutritional outcomes within households.

Effective monitoring of agriculture: a response.

The development of effective agricultural monitoring networks is essential to track, anticipate and manage changes in the social, economic and environmental aspects of agriculture. We welcome the perspective of Lindenmayer and Likens (J. Environ. Monit., 2011, 13, 1559) as published in the Journal of Environmental Monitoring on our earlier paper, "Monitoring the World's Agriculture" (Sachs et al., Nature, 2010, 466, 558-560). In this response, we address their three main critiques labeled as 'the passive approach', 'the problem with uniform metrics' and 'the problem with composite metrics'. We expand on specific research questions at the core of the network design, on the distinction between key universal and site-specific metrics to detect change over time and across scales, and on the need for composite metrics in decision-making. We believe that simultaneously measuring indicators of the three pillars of sustainability (environmentally sound, social responsible and economically viable) in an effectively integrated monitoring system will ultimately allow scientists and land managers alike to find solutions to the most pressing problems facing global food security.

Are Women in Rural India Really Consuming a Less Diverse Diet?

BACKGROUND: It is widely considered that women have less diverse diets than other household members. However, it has been challenging to establish this empirically since women's diet diversity is measured differently from that of other household members. OBJECTIVE: In this article, we compare women's dietary diversity with that of their respective households and thereby generate a measure of "dietary gap." METHODS: We measure women's "dietary gap" by using the difference of homogenized household and woman dietary scores (using the same scales). This is done using primary data on 3600 households from 4 districts in India. Additionally, we show the robustness of our results to variations in scale and recall periods used to construct the diet diversity scores. RESULTS: Mean difference tests indicate that women consistently consume 0.1 to 0.5 fewer food groups relative to other household members, with the results being statistically significant at the 1% level. The food groups driving this dietary gap are nonstaples like Vitamin A-rich fruits and vegetables, meat/fish/poultry, and dairy. CONCLUSIONS: Results point toward the discrimination faced by women in the variety of the food consumed, the importance of considering comparability in creating indices of diet diversity, and the need to collect more detailed information on diets. To our knowledge, this is one of the first studies to examine dietary discrimination faced by women using common scales.

Market Access, Production Diversity, and Diet Diversity: Evidence From India.

BACKGROUND: Recent literature, largely from Africa, shows mixed effects of own-production on diet diversity. However, the role of own-production, relative to markets, in influencing food consumption becomes more pronounced as market integration increases. OBJECTIVE: This paper investigates the relative importance of two factors - production diversity and household market integration - for the intake of a nutritious diet by women and households in rural India. METHODS: Data analysis is based on primary data from an extensive agriculture-nutrition survey of 3600 Indian households that was collected in 2017. Dietary diversity scores are constructed for women and households is based on 24-hour and 7-day recall periods. Household market integration is measured as monthly household expenditure on key non-staple food groups. We measure production diversity in two ways - field-level and on-farm production diversity - in order to account for the cereal centric rice-wheat cropping system found in our study locations. The analysis is based on Ordinary Least Squares regressions where we control for a variety of village, household, and individual level covariates that affect food consumption, and village fixed effects. Robustness checks are done by way of using a Poisson regression specifications and 7-day recall period. RESULTS: Conventional measures of field-level production diversity, like the number of crops or food groups grown, have no significant association with diet diversity. In contrast, it is on-farm production diversity (the field-level cultivation of pulses and on-farm livestock management, and kitchen gardens in the longer run) that is significantly associated with improved dietary diversity scores, thus suggesting the importance of non-staples in improving both individual and household dietary diversity. Furthermore, market purchases of non-staples like pulses and dairy products are associated with a significantly higher dietary diversity. Other significant determinants of dietary diversity include women's literacy and awareness of nutrition. These results mostly remain robust to changes in the recall period of the diet diversity measure and the nature of the empirical specification. CONCLUSIONS: This study contributes to the scarce empirical evidence related to diets in India. Additionally, our results indicate some key intervention areas - promoting livestock rearing, strengthening households' market integration (for purchase of non-staples) and increasing women's awareness about nutrition. These are more impactful than raising production diversity.

Nutritional outcomes of empowerment and market integration for women in rural India.

Over half of all women of reproductive age are affected by anaemia in India. In this paper we study the role that both household market integration and women's empowerment in agriculture can play in determining women's dietary diversity. Our analysis is based on primary data from 3600 households across India on agriculture, nutrition and anthropometric outcomes. We account for market integration by way of per capita household purchases (quantity) of cereals and non- cereal food groups, such as pulses, meat/ fish/ poultry, fruits and vegetables, eggs and dairy. We construct an adapted version of the Abbreviated Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (A-WEAI) that is context- specific and agriculture- oriented. After controlling for individual, household and village- level explanatory factors, we find that - for a given level of per capita market purchases - women who are empowered in their agricultural decisions have significantly higher dietary diversity scores relative to women who are disempowered of such decisions. More specifically it is women's empowerment in two areas: input in production decisions and membership in self- help groups that supports this result. Women's empowerment also enhances dietary diversity in the presence of disaggregated per capita purchases of non-cereals such as pulses, meat, dairy and eggs. This highlights the importance of reorienting India's agricultural price and procurement policies beyond staple grains to ensure better dietary diversity.

Mainstreaming nutrition metrics in household surveys--toward a multidisciplinary convergence of data systems.

Since the 2008 food price crisis, food and nutrition security are back on the global development agenda, with particular emphasis on agricultural pathways toward improved nutrition. Parallel efforts are being promoted to improve the data and metrics for monitoring progress toward positive nutritional outcomes, especially for women and children. Despite the increased investment in tracking nutritional outcomes, these efforts are often made in silos, which create challenges for integrating nutritional data with other sectoral data, such as those related to agriculture. This paper proposes a minimum set of nutrition indicators to be included in nationally representative agricultural (and multitopic) household surveys. Building multisectoral convergence across existing surveys will allow us to better identify priority interventions and to monitor progress toward improved nutrition targets.