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178 STUART GILLESPIE AND SUNEETHA KADIYALA


nutrition and agriculture is itself a form of “empirical disconnect” between agri- culture and malnutrition. Descriptive analyses relating agriculture growth to anthropometric outcomes


of children and women show regional differences and variations by the nutrition indicator measured. For example, between 1992 and 2005, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Bihar, and Assam experi- enced fairly rapid agricultural growth and significant improvement in at least one anthropometric indicator, but improvements were uneven: Andhra Pradesh made no improvement in child stunting, Kerala made no improvement in underweight prevalence in children, and Assam and Bihar experienced a sharp increase in the prevalence of low BMI in women. Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat saw fairly strong agricultural growth and very poor anthropometric outcomes. In any such analysis, it will be important to investigate differences across entire population distributions for different indexes (stunting, wasting, underweight, and overweight) and for dif- ferent people (women and children, especially). In search of explanations for such variance, a systematic search of 15 databases


was conducted. This yielded 4,545 citations, which were then screened for their relevance to the pathways described above. Only 71 of these articles—of varying scale, scope, methodology, and rigor—addressed the pathways, and most did so only partially. The literature of the past two decades confirms the importance of engaging in


agriculture as a source of food for producer households. But given the fluctuations in the agriculture sector (due, for example, to market volatility and seasonality), diversifying food sources seems to be important. Diversification of foods grown by a household can itself improve dietary diversity and nutrition outcomes. However, without further investments in public health and nutrition education, producing foods with high nutritional value does not necessarily lead to their increased intake by producer households, and any negative shocks tend to exacerbate the existing intrahousehold allocation bias against women. While it is not clear if source of household income matters, income does influ-


ence food consumption patterns in India. Trends in food consumption during the past two decades show positive but declining income elasticities for calories and protein, but much higher income elasticities for fats. At the household level, the overall pattern is one of stable rice and wheat consumption for the poor, sharp declines in coarse cereal consumption, ongoing declines in pulse consumption, and rising consumption of fat. In contrast, the one nutritionally beneficial trend is the slow rise in consumption of high-value micronutrient-rich items. Persistent poverty and undernutrition among landless agricultural laborers are continuing causes of concern.


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