Ameliorating Food and Nutrition Security in Farm Households: Does Informatization Matter?

Gershom Endelani Mwalupaso, Shangao Wang, Aseres Mamo Eshetie and Xu Tian
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Gershom Endelani Mwalupaso: College of Economics and Management, China Center for Food Security Studies, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
Shangao Wang: College of Economics and Management, China Center for Food Security Studies, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
Aseres Mamo Eshetie: Devoted Consulting PLC, Lideta Sub City, Addis Ababa 1000, Ethiopia

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 2, 1-20

Abstract: Improving food and nutrition security in Sub-Saharan Africa’s farm households has become a prominent priority subject for researchers and policymakers alike. Interestingly, it is realized through enhancement in dietary diversity and quality. To this end, better access to food and information is considered a prerequisite. Given that mobile phone coverage offers new prospects for increasing rural households’ access to information, can informatization (mobile phone used as a concrete example) possibly influence dietary diversity and quality? Cross-sectional data collected from farm households in Zambia is used to address this topic by applying the ordinary least square and endogenous switching regression (ESR). Household dietary diversity score was constructed based on a 7-days recall approach to measure consumption patterns. Our robust regression result indicates that mobile phone use positively and significantly influences dietary diversity and quality. Particularly, gender-disaggregated regression reveals that male-headed households have stronger positive associations than their counterparts. We also find that in comparison to non-adopters, adopters consume three more foods weekly. This is attributable to the income gains and increased frequency in information access on account of mobile phone adoption. Conversely, average consumption would increase by two more foods weekly if mobile phones were adopted in non-adopting households. Therefore, our study puts forwards substantial empirical evidence to warrant policy formulation directed at promoting informatization among farm households. Eventually, this could possibly recuperate dynamism in agricultural food production as food and nutrition security in farm households ameliorates.

Keywords: dietary diversity and quality; mobile phones; informatization; farm households; Zambia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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