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Do agricultural outputs of partly autarkic peasants affect their health and nutrition? Evidence from Rwanda

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  • Muller, Christophe

Abstract

In rural areas of less developed countries because of market imperfections, the health and nutritional status of peasants may directly depend on the production levels of specific agricultural goods rather than solely on income levels. This channel of health and nutrition determination has never been studied. In order to assess and test the empirical possibility of this channel, we estimate the responses of health and nutritional status of autarkic agricultural households in Rwanda with respect to differences in socio-demographic characteristics and the main agricultural outputs and inputs while controlling for local environment and sampling scheme. Several food outputs are found to have a positive influence on health and nutrition, whereas the production of traditional beers has a negative impact. Moreover, greater land negatively affects health and nutrition, conditionally on agricultural production, perhaps because of a larger relative workload for households who have a large farm. An alternative interpretation of the estimates is that they inform on the validity of the common hypothesis of perfect agricultural input/output markets with no effect of agricultural inputs/outputs on health and nutrition status. This hypothesis is rejected.

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  • Muller, Christophe, 2009. "Do agricultural outputs of partly autarkic peasants affect their health and nutrition? Evidence from Rwanda," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 166-175, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jfpoli:v:34:y:2009:i:2:p:166-175
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    1. Christophe Muller & Nouréini Sayouti, 2019. "How Do Agro-Pastoral Policies Affect the Dietary Intake of Agro-Pastoralists? Evidence from Niger," AMSE Working Papers 1917, Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France, revised Apr 2020.
    2. Maryia Bakhtsiyarava & Kathryn Grace, 2021. "Agricultural production diversity and child nutrition in Ethiopia," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 13(6), pages 1407-1422, December.
    3. Smith, Michael D. & Kassa, Woubet & Winters, Paul, 2017. "Assessing food insecurity in Latin America and the Caribbean using FAO’s Food Insecurity Experience Scale," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 48-61.
    4. Sven Bergau & Tim K. Loos & Orkhan Sariyev, 2022. "On- and Off-Farm Diversification and Travel Time to Markets: Linkages to Food Security in Rural Ethiopia," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 34(5), pages 2543-2560, October.
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    6. Kibrom T. Sibhatu & Matin Qaim, 2018. "Farm production diversity and dietary quality: linkages and measurement issues," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 10(1), pages 47-59, February.
    7. Katharina Lehmann-Uschner & Kati Kraehnert, 2017. "Food Intake and the Role of Food Self-Provisioning," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(8), pages 1303-1322, August.
    8. Pace, Noemi & Sebastian, Ashwini & Daidone, Silvio & Prifti, Ervin & Davis, Benjamin, 2022. "Mediation analysis of the impact of the Zimbabwe Harmonized Social Cash Transfer Programme on food security and nutrition," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    9. Andrew Dillon & Kevin McGee & Gbemisola Oseni, 2015. "Agricultural Production, Dietary Diversity and Climate Variability," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(8), pages 976-995, August.
    10. Christophe Muller & Nouréini Sayouti, 2019. "How do agro-pastoral policies affect the dietary intake of agro-pastoralists in Niger?," CERDI Working papers halshs-02165137, HAL.
    11. Genova, C. & Umberger, W. & Peralta, A. & Newman, S., 2018. "Dietary diversity of children and teenagers in Northern Vietnam," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 276033, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    12. Christophe Muller & Nouréini Sayouti, 2019. "How do agro-pastoral policies affect the dietary intake of agro-pastoralists in Niger?," Working Papers halshs-02165137, HAL.
    13. Mauricio R. Bellon & Gervais Ntandou-Bouzitou & Janet E. Lauderdale & Francesco Caracciolo, 2023. "Combining market and nonmarket food sources provides rural households with more options to achieve better diets in Southern Benin," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 15(2), pages 411-422, April.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Health and nutrition models Agricultural households;

    JEL classification:

    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

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