Higher temperatures and household nutrition: Evidence from India

According to the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report, “It is projected that climate change will affect food security by the middle of the 21st century, with the largest numbers of food-insecure people located in South Asia”. Therefore, it is important to understand how higher temperatures impact nutrition. In this paper, we use three rounds of nationally representative consumption data to examine the impact of high temperatures on food consumption in India. We find that the overall effects of temperature on macronutrient intake, food and dietary diversity are small and economically insignificant. The consumption of non-perishable food items such as cereals remains unaffected during hot periods. However, we find significant negative effects on nutrition obtained from perishable food items. For example, a 1 °C increase in mean temperature over a 30-day period leads to a decline of about 2% in protein consumption from meat, fish, and eggs in rural areas. The adverse effects on perishable food consumption are more pronounced among poorer households and those lacking access to refrigeration, in both rural and urban areas. Given the disproportionate burden on low-income households, our findings call for targeted policy responses to safeguard food and nutrition security in the face of climate change.