Tropentag, September 17 - 19, 2018 in Ghent "Global food security and food safety: The role of universities"

Grain Legume Cultivation and Children's Dietary Diversity in Smallholder Farming Households in Rural Ghana and Kenya

¹Wageningen University and Research, Dept. of Plant Sciences, The Netherlands
²University for Development Studies, Dept. of Community Nutrition, Ghana
³Wageningen University and Research, Dept. of Agrotechnology and Food Sciences, The Netherlands

Abstract

Boosting smallholder food production can potentially improve children's nutrition in rural sub-Saharan Africa through a production-own consumption pathway and an income-food purchase pathway. Rigorously designed studies are needed to provide evidence for nutrition impact, but are often difficult to implement in agricultural projects. Within the framework of a large agricultural development project supporting legume production (N₂Africa), we studied the potential to improve children's dietary diversity by comparing N₂Africa and non-N₂Africa households in a cross-sectional quasi-experimental design, followed by structural equation modelling (SEM) and focus group discussions in rural Ghana and Kenya. Comparing N₂Africa and non-N₂Africa households, we found that participating in N₂Africa was not associated with improved dietary diversity of children. However, for soybean, SEM indicated a relatively good fit to the a posteriori model in Kenya but not in Ghana, and in Kenya only the production-own consumption pathway was fully supported, with no effect through the income-food purchase pathway. Results are possibly related to differences in the food environment between the two countries, related to attribution of positive characteristics to soybean, the variety of local soybean-based dishes, being a new crop or not, women's involvement in soybean cultivation, the presence of markets, and being treated as a food or cash crop. These findings confirm the importance of the food environment for translation of enhanced crop production into improved human nutrition. This study also shows that in a situation where rigorous study designs cannot be implemented, SEM is a useful option to analyse whether agriculture projects have the potential to improve nutrition.

Keywords: Children, dietary diversity, Ghana, Kenya, legume production, SEM analysis

Contact Address: Ilse de Jager, Wageningen University and Research, Dept. of Plant Sciences, Stippeneng 4, 6708 WE Wageningen, The Netherlands, e-mail: dejager.ilsegmail.com