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

Sreejith Aravindakshan, Alison Laing, Mustafa Kamal, Saral Karki, Ravi Nandi, Pankaj Koirala, Pushpa Poudel, Palash Sarker, Zannatul Ferdous, Md Abu Sayem, Mahesh Gathala and Timothy J. Krupnik

from International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: land; diet; dietary diversity; production; consumption; plains; crop production; Asia; Southern Asia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-12
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fpr:ifpric:178084

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