Dietary diversity in the face of climate change: An Indian household perspective

In the context of accelerating climate change (CC), this study empirically examines climatic variations’ impact on household dietary diversity (DD) in India. The analysis period spans 2014–2020 and includes approximately 1.04 million observations from 198,238 households. We use linear and quadratic regressions under multiple model specifications (pooled, fixed effect, and fractional) to obtain robust results. Our results indicate that temperature anomalies positively impact DD up to a threshold, after which the relationship turns negative. However, the effect of precipitation variation is inconclusive. Furthermore, rising humidity undermines DD. This paper contributes to the literature on climatic variations and food insecurity by exploring whether Indian households are adapting to climatic variations. Anomalies show heterogeneous impacts on DD depending on the baseline climate and households’ socioeconomic characteristics. Climatic variation is expected to exacerbate existing vulnerabilities in food systems; thus, our findings underscore the urgency for climate-adaptive strategies to safeguard food security, particularly in developing nations vulnerable to CC impacts.