Are Improvements in Agricultural Production Equally Beneficial for Household Food Security and Children’s Nutrition? Evidence From Ethiopia

Maryia Bakhtsiyarava , University of Minnesota

Ethiopia and its food security situation have been widely studied as Ethiopia remains one of the most food insecure countries in the world—38% of Ethiopian children are undernourished. Despite its long history, research on the effectiveness of various agricultural activities for food security and nutrition has produced inconclusive results. This study provides new insight by combining household measures of food security with children's height-for-age z-scores to analyze how agricultural practices simultaneously impact households and children. The results indicate that agricultural activities can be beneficial for household-level food security, but the effects of agricultural activities on children’s nutrition are less clear. Annual rainfall, the share of harvest sold, and the share of harvest used for household consumption are the most impactful measures for household food security and, possibly, to children’s nutrition. Future research will explore these relationships in more detail.

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 Presented in Session 3. Population, Development, & the Environment; Data & Methods; Applied Demography