Grain legume cultivation and children’s dietary diversity in smallholder farming households in rural Ghana and Kenya

Ilse de Jager (), Abdul-Razak Abizari, Jacob C. Douma, Ken E. Giller and Inge D. Brouwer
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Ilse de Jager: Wageningen University
Abdul-Razak Abizari: University for Development Studies
Jacob C. Douma: Wageningen University
Ken E. Giller: Wageningen University
Inge D. Brouwer: Wageningen University

Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, 2017, vol. 9, issue 5, No 11, 1053-1071

Abstract: Abstract Boosting smallholder food production can potentially improve children’s nutrition in rural Sub-Saharan Africa through a production-own consumption pathway and an income-food purchase pathway. Rigorously designed studies are needed to provide evidence for nutrition impact, but are often difficult to implement in agricultural projects. Within the framework of a large agricultural development project supporting legume production (N2Africa), we studied the potential to improve children’s dietary diversity by comparing N2Africa and non-N2Africa households in a cross-sectional quasi-experimental design, followed by structural equation modelling (SEM) and focus group discussions in rural Ghana and Kenya. Comparing N2Africa and non-N2Africa households, we found that participating in N2Africa was not associated with improved dietary diversity of children. However, for soybean, SEM indicated a relatively good fit to the posteriori model in Kenya but not in Ghana, and in Kenya only the production-own consumption pathway was fully supported, with no effect through the income-food purchase pathway. Results are possibly related to differences in the food environment between the two countries, related to attribution of positive characteristics to soybean, the variety of local soybean-based dishes, being a new crop or not, women’s involvement in soybean cultivation, the presence of markets, and being treated as a food or cash crop. These findings confirm the importance of the food environment for translation of enhanced crop production into improved human nutrition. This study also shows that in a situation where rigorous study designs cannot be implemented, SEM is a useful option to analyse whether agriculture projects have the potential to improve nutrition.

Keywords: Dietary diversity; Legume production; SEM analysis; Children; Ghana; Kenya (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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DOI: 10.1007/s12571-017-0720-0

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