Farm production, marketing, and children's nutritional outcomes in rural Zambia

Despite increasing agricultural productivity, malnutrition remains high among food producers in many developing countries. This study examines how the difference between agricultural household nutrition requirements and production kept for home consumption, the Nutritient deficiency from own product...

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Autores principales: Mulungu, Kelvin, Manning, Dale T., Kumwenda, Chiza, Mwelwa, Lukonde, Mudenda, Lackson Daniel
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: Wiley Periodicals LLC 2025
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/178359
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author Mulungu, Kelvin
Manning, Dale T.
Kumwenda, Chiza
Mwelwa, Lukonde
Mudenda, Lackson Daniel
author_browse Kumwenda, Chiza
Manning, Dale T.
Mudenda, Lackson Daniel
Mulungu, Kelvin
Mwelwa, Lukonde
author_facet Mulungu, Kelvin
Manning, Dale T.
Kumwenda, Chiza
Mwelwa, Lukonde
Mudenda, Lackson Daniel
author_sort Mulungu, Kelvin
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Despite increasing agricultural productivity, malnutrition remains high among food producers in many developing countries. This study examines how the difference between agricultural household nutrition requirements and production kept for home consumption, the Nutritient deficiency from own production (NDOP), impacts children's height-for-age z-scores (HAZ) using a unique survey of 528 households in Zambia. The study also investigates the relationship between NDOP and market-bought nutrition and the role of intra-season price changes in nutrition. To address the endogeneity of NDOP, we use a control function approach. We find that NDOP is associated with lower HAZ. Both energy (calories) NDOP and nutrient-specific NDOP, resulting from underproduction relative to nutritional requirements and from selling more than surplus food crops, are negatively correlated with HAZ. This result suggests that higher productivity and market participation do not always lead to better nutrition. We also find that crop sales (commercialization) only benefit nutrition if the household only sells surplus output relative to its nutritional requirements. Finally, we also find that NDOP does not correlate with market food purchases, and that the seasonal price increases for cereals further dampens market food purchases. The findings highlight that policies promoting smallholder commercialisation may overlook detrimental nutrition trade-offs when own-production falls short of household needs. Accounting for post-harvest allocation of nutrients between own-consumption, sales, and purchases can help ensure agricultural interventions improve farmer livelihoods and child nutrition.
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spelling CGSpace1783592025-11-28T02:02:06Z Farm production, marketing, and children's nutritional outcomes in rural Zambia Mulungu, Kelvin Manning, Dale T. Kumwenda, Chiza Mwelwa, Lukonde Mudenda, Lackson Daniel children health marketing nutrition production stunting Despite increasing agricultural productivity, malnutrition remains high among food producers in many developing countries. This study examines how the difference between agricultural household nutrition requirements and production kept for home consumption, the Nutritient deficiency from own production (NDOP), impacts children's height-for-age z-scores (HAZ) using a unique survey of 528 households in Zambia. The study also investigates the relationship between NDOP and market-bought nutrition and the role of intra-season price changes in nutrition. To address the endogeneity of NDOP, we use a control function approach. We find that NDOP is associated with lower HAZ. Both energy (calories) NDOP and nutrient-specific NDOP, resulting from underproduction relative to nutritional requirements and from selling more than surplus food crops, are negatively correlated with HAZ. This result suggests that higher productivity and market participation do not always lead to better nutrition. We also find that crop sales (commercialization) only benefit nutrition if the household only sells surplus output relative to its nutritional requirements. Finally, we also find that NDOP does not correlate with market food purchases, and that the seasonal price increases for cereals further dampens market food purchases. The findings highlight that policies promoting smallholder commercialisation may overlook detrimental nutrition trade-offs when own-production falls short of household needs. Accounting for post-harvest allocation of nutrients between own-consumption, sales, and purchases can help ensure agricultural interventions improve farmer livelihoods and child nutrition. 2025-03 2025-11-27T22:37:54Z 2025-11-27T22:37:54Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/178359 en Open Access application/pdf Wiley Periodicals LLC Mulungu, K., Manning, D. T., Kumwenda, C., Mwelwa, L., & Mudenda, L. D. (2025). Farm production, marketing, and children’s nutritional outcomes in rural Zambia. Agricultural Economics, 56(2), 283-302. https://doi.org/10.1111/agec.12876
spellingShingle children
health
marketing
nutrition
production
stunting
Mulungu, Kelvin
Manning, Dale T.
Kumwenda, Chiza
Mwelwa, Lukonde
Mudenda, Lackson Daniel
Farm production, marketing, and children's nutritional outcomes in rural Zambia
title Farm production, marketing, and children's nutritional outcomes in rural Zambia
title_full Farm production, marketing, and children's nutritional outcomes in rural Zambia
title_fullStr Farm production, marketing, and children's nutritional outcomes in rural Zambia
title_full_unstemmed Farm production, marketing, and children's nutritional outcomes in rural Zambia
title_short Farm production, marketing, and children's nutritional outcomes in rural Zambia
title_sort farm production marketing and children s nutritional outcomes in rural zambia
topic children
health
marketing
nutrition
production
stunting
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/178359
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