Crop diversification and nutrition outcomes in smallholder households: Panel data evidence from Southwestern and Northern Uganda

Abstract

This study examined the effect of adopting crop diversification on nutrition outcomes of smallholder households in southwestern and northern Uganda. We constructed three models of correlates of household dietary diversity, minimum dietary diversity for women, and stunting of children aged 6–59 months. A 3-year panel multi-topic dataset collected in 2012, 2014 and 2016 by USAID’s Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Nutrition in southwestern and northern Uganda was utilized. Crop diversification was found to be positively and strongly associated with household dietary diversity, and with the probability of achieving the minimum dietary diversity for women. There was no clear association found between crop diversification and child stunting. The findings imply that an integrated approach that simultaneously addresses increasing both crop and livestock diversification, access to improved farm production technologies, access to nutrition information, and increasing opportunities to do off-farm work should be adopted in order to improve the nutrition of farm households in Uganda.
Key words: Crop diversification, dietary diversity, stunting, panel data, Uganda