Do Wealth and Market Access Explain Inconsistent Relationships between Crop Diversity and Dietary Diversity? Evidence from 10 Sub-Saharan African Countries

Abstract

Despite the robust literature base that has explored links between household crop diversity and children’s dietary diversity, evidence continues to yield mixed results regarding the efficacy of crop diversity in improving childhood dietary outcomes. Given the variance in the association between agrobiodiversity and dietary diversity, we identified wealth and distance to markets as potential factors that may impact these relationships. Through a series of Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regressions, this study examines the associations between crop diversity and dietary diversity among households at different levels of wealth in 10 sub-Saharan African countries. Drawing on the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series and Demographic and Health Surveys system, we find that the significance and direction of the association between crop diversity (as proxied using the Simpsons Diversity Index) and children’s dietary diversity (as measured using the Household Dietary Diversity Score) vary by wealth quintile across countries and households: in richer households, crop diversity has a negative effect on dietary diversity, and in poorer households, there is no significant effect. This study indicates the need to understand contextual factors that impact the relationship between agricultural diversity and dietary diversity to inform development policies.