More land, more diverse diets? Exploring production and consumption trade-offs in the eastern Indo-Gangetic plains

Persistent land inequality and gender disparities in land ownership across the Eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains of Bangladesh, India, and Nepal reinforces structural constraints that limit productivity and worsens nutrition outcomes for land-poor households. • Cereal and tuber yields increase with greater land access — particularly on leased-in land — while leasedout land reduces productivity, indicating that well-functioning rental markets are central to improving staple crop performance. • Production allocation patterns vary across landholding groups: land-poor households retain more for subsistence, while larger landholders commercialize a greater share, often selling nutrient-dense foods and retaining cereals and milk for home consumption. • Higher production diversity is associated with improved diet quality, but land-poor households remain at elevated diet-related health risk, indicating that diversification must be complemented by improved land access, market integration, and nutrition support.