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The cost of nutritious food in South Asia

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  • Dizon,Felipe Jr Fadullon
  • Herforth,Anna Whitson

Abstract

The high cost of nutritious foods can worsen poor diets and nutrition outcomes especially among low-income households. Yet little is known about the spatial and temporal patterns of the cost of nutritious diets in South Asia, where malnutrition in multiple forms remains high. Using existing food price data from Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and India, two methods are applied to assess the affordability of nutritious foods: Cost of a Recommended Diet (CoRD) and Nutritious Food Price Index (NPI). The analysis finds that the cost of a nutritious diet is 38 percent higher in Sri Lanka using CoRD compared to the cost of a (calorie-based) diet that meets basic food needs, and 15 percent higher in Afghanistan. In addition, CoRD varies across cities due to variability in the price of dairy and vegetables. Comparison of the NPI and the food Consumer Price Index (CPI) indicates that, for some countries, the price of a nutritious food basket varies more by season and has been increasing at a faster rate than the price of a typical food basket. This phenomenon is largely due to the variable cost of vegetables.

Suggested Citation

  • Dizon,Felipe Jr Fadullon & Herforth,Anna Whitson, 2018. "The cost of nutritious food in South Asia," Policy Research Working Paper Series 8557, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:8557
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    Cited by:

    1. Nissan, Hannah & Simmons, Will & Downs, Shauna M., 2022. "Building climate-sensitive nutrition programmes," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 113561, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    2. Schneider, Kate & Christiaensen, Luc & Webb, Patrick & Masters, William A., 2021. "Availability, Seasonality, and Affordability of Nutritious Diets for All – Evidence from Malawi," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315036, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    3. Kaiyatsa, Stevier & Schneider, Kate R. & Masters, William A., 2021. "Missing prices in CPI data reflect both seasonal availability and random omissions: Evidence from a novel survey of market informants in Malawi," 2021 Annual Meeting, August 1-3, Austin, Texas 313972, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    4. Aysegül Kayaoglu & Ghassan Baliki & Tilman Brück, 2023. "Conducting (Long-term) Impact Evaluations in Humanitarian and Conflict Settings: Evidence from a complex agricultural intervention in Syria," HiCN Working Papers 386, Households in Conflict Network.

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