Grow and eat healthy: Mediating effect of food poverty and dietary diversity with evidence from Tanzania

Abstract

Abstract Agriculture and health are linked through natural environment, food production, nutrition and production of medicinal plants. The existing literature on the effect of food poverty and dietary diversity as mediating factors for agriculture on household’s health expenditure presents mixed results and are country specific. This study aimed at examining the link between agriculture and household’s health expenditure mediated by food poverty and dietary diversity using the nationally representative Tanzania household budget survey data 2017/18. We employed an instrumental variable generalized method of moment (IV-GMM) as a method of analysis. Results show that participation in agriculture solely has no effect on health expenditure but the effect stems from food poverty incidence and dietary diversity level as mediating factors. Food poor households had 54.1–55.7% lower health expenditure than food secure households. An additional food group consumed by a household leads to 11.3–11.6% increase in household health expenditure. Thus, policies aiming at improving health should go beyond merely fostering agricultural participation and instead place more emphasis on pro-poor and nutrition sensitive agriculture.