Biofortification, crop adoption and health information: Impact pathways in Mozambique and Uganda

Biofortification is a promising strategy to combat micronutrient malnutrition by promoting the adoption of staple food crops bred to be dense sources of specific micronutrients. Research on biofortified orange-fleshed sweet potato (OFSP) has shown that the crop improves the vitamin A status of child...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: de Brauw, Alan, Eozenou, Patrick, Gilligan, Daniel O., Hotz, Christine, Kumar, Neha, Meenakshi, J.V.
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/146387
_version_ 1855528313946112000
author de Brauw, Alan
Eozenou, Patrick
Gilligan, Daniel O.
Hotz, Christine
Kumar, Neha
Meenakshi, J.V.
author_browse Eozenou, Patrick
Gilligan, Daniel O.
Hotz, Christine
Kumar, Neha
Meenakshi, J.V.
de Brauw, Alan
author_facet de Brauw, Alan
Eozenou, Patrick
Gilligan, Daniel O.
Hotz, Christine
Kumar, Neha
Meenakshi, J.V.
author_sort de Brauw, Alan
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Biofortification is a promising strategy to combat micronutrient malnutrition by promoting the adoption of staple food crops bred to be dense sources of specific micronutrients. Research on biofortified orange-fleshed sweet potato (OFSP) has shown that the crop improves the vitamin A status of children who consume as little as 100 grams per day, and intensive promotion strategies improve dietary intakes of vitamin A in field experiments. However, little is known about OFSP adoption behavior, or about the role that nutrition information plays in promoting adoption and changing diet. We report evidence from similar randomized field experiments conducted in Mozambique and Uganda to promote OFSP. We further use causal mediation analysis to study impact pathways for adoption and dietary intakes. Despite different agronomic conditions and sweet potato cropping patterns across the two countries, the project had similar impacts, leading to adoption by 61% to 68% of farmers exposed to the project, and doubling vitamin A intakes in children. In both countries, two intervention models that differed in training intensity and cost had comparable impacts relative to the control group. The project increased the knowledge of key nutrition messages; however, added knowledge of nutrition messages appears to have minimally affected adoption, conditional on assumptions required for causal mediation analysis. Increased vitamin A intakes were largely explained by adoption and not by nutrition knowledge gained, though in Uganda a large share of impacts on vitamin A intakes cannot be explained by mediating variables. Similar impacts could likely have been achieved by reducing the scope of nutrition trainings.
format Journal Article
id CGSpace146387
institution CGIAR Consortium
language Inglés
publishDate 2018
publishDateRange 2018
publishDateSort 2018
publisher Agricultural and Applied Economics Association
publisherStr Agricultural and Applied Economics Association
record_format dspace
spelling CGSpace1463872025-02-24T06:47:21Z Biofortification, crop adoption and health information: Impact pathways in Mozambique and Uganda de Brauw, Alan Eozenou, Patrick Gilligan, Daniel O. Hotz, Christine Kumar, Neha Meenakshi, J.V. sweet potato potatoes biofortification crops vitamin a deficiency retinol micronutrient deficiencies malnutrition nutrition trace elements Biofortification is a promising strategy to combat micronutrient malnutrition by promoting the adoption of staple food crops bred to be dense sources of specific micronutrients. Research on biofortified orange-fleshed sweet potato (OFSP) has shown that the crop improves the vitamin A status of children who consume as little as 100 grams per day, and intensive promotion strategies improve dietary intakes of vitamin A in field experiments. However, little is known about OFSP adoption behavior, or about the role that nutrition information plays in promoting adoption and changing diet. We report evidence from similar randomized field experiments conducted in Mozambique and Uganda to promote OFSP. We further use causal mediation analysis to study impact pathways for adoption and dietary intakes. Despite different agronomic conditions and sweet potato cropping patterns across the two countries, the project had similar impacts, leading to adoption by 61% to 68% of farmers exposed to the project, and doubling vitamin A intakes in children. In both countries, two intervention models that differed in training intensity and cost had comparable impacts relative to the control group. The project increased the knowledge of key nutrition messages; however, added knowledge of nutrition messages appears to have minimally affected adoption, conditional on assumptions required for causal mediation analysis. Increased vitamin A intakes were largely explained by adoption and not by nutrition knowledge gained, though in Uganda a large share of impacts on vitamin A intakes cannot be explained by mediating variables. Similar impacts could likely have been achieved by reducing the scope of nutrition trainings. 2018-12-10 2024-06-21T09:06:53Z 2024-06-21T09:06:53Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/146387 en http://purl.umn.edu/150514 Open Access Agricultural and Applied Economics Association de Brauw, Alan; Eozenou, Patrick; Gilligan, Daniel; Hotz, Christine; Kumar, Neha; and Meenakshi, J.V. 2018. American Journal of Agricultural Economics 100(3): 906–930. https://doi.org/10.1093/ajae/aay005
spellingShingle sweet potato
potatoes
biofortification
crops
vitamin a deficiency
retinol
micronutrient deficiencies
malnutrition
nutrition
trace elements
de Brauw, Alan
Eozenou, Patrick
Gilligan, Daniel O.
Hotz, Christine
Kumar, Neha
Meenakshi, J.V.
Biofortification, crop adoption and health information: Impact pathways in Mozambique and Uganda
title Biofortification, crop adoption and health information: Impact pathways in Mozambique and Uganda
title_full Biofortification, crop adoption and health information: Impact pathways in Mozambique and Uganda
title_fullStr Biofortification, crop adoption and health information: Impact pathways in Mozambique and Uganda
title_full_unstemmed Biofortification, crop adoption and health information: Impact pathways in Mozambique and Uganda
title_short Biofortification, crop adoption and health information: Impact pathways in Mozambique and Uganda
title_sort biofortification crop adoption and health information impact pathways in mozambique and uganda
topic sweet potato
potatoes
biofortification
crops
vitamin a deficiency
retinol
micronutrient deficiencies
malnutrition
nutrition
trace elements
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/146387
work_keys_str_mv AT debrauwalan biofortificationcropadoptionandhealthinformationimpactpathwaysinmozambiqueanduganda
AT eozenoupatrick biofortificationcropadoptionandhealthinformationimpactpathwaysinmozambiqueanduganda
AT gilligandanielo biofortificationcropadoptionandhealthinformationimpactpathwaysinmozambiqueanduganda
AT hotzchristine biofortificationcropadoptionandhealthinformationimpactpathwaysinmozambiqueanduganda
AT kumarneha biofortificationcropadoptionandhealthinformationimpactpathwaysinmozambiqueanduganda
AT meenakshijv biofortificationcropadoptionandhealthinformationimpactpathwaysinmozambiqueanduganda