Household Food Production and Dietary Diversity in a Remote,Former Socialist Society: Panel Data Evidence from Tajikistan

Abstract

Background

Despite a growing interest in household-level agriculture–nutrition linkage, evidence remains thin in countries like Tajikistan, one of the poorest former socialist countries where food crop production decisions by individual farm households had been significantly regulated by the government until recently.

Objectives

We narrow this knowledge gap by examining the linkages between households’ food production practice as well as their productivity performances and dietary diversity scores (DDS) of both the household and individual women in Tajikistan.

Methods

We use a panel sample of households and individual women of reproductive ages in the Khatlon province of Tajikistan, the poorest province and a major agricultural region of the country. Difference-in-difference propensity score regressions and panel fixed-effects instrumental variable regressions are applied.

Results

Higher overall diversity in food groups (FGs) produced by households, as well as greater overall production per land and per household member at the household level, leads to higher DDS both for the household and for individual women, particularly in areas with poor food market access. FG-specific analyses suggest that for vegetables, fruits, legumes/nuts/seeds, dairy products, and eggs, significant one-on-one linkage exists between own production and consumption for these FGs.

Conclusions

Results underscore the importance of supporting household-level agricultural diversification and agricultural productivity growth in Tajikistan to improve dietary diversity, especially in remote areas.

Plain Language Title

For rural households including women of reproductive age in these households who reside in remote areas far from food markets, consuming diverse varieties of food, particularly fruits, vegetables, legumes/nuts/seeds, dairy products, and eggs is more likely to require producing these types of foods on their own

Plain Language Summary

There is a growing interest in developing countries as to how food production activities by a household allow household members to consume more diverse types of food. However, information based on field-level data is limited in countries like Tajikistan, one of the poorest former socialist countries where food crop production decisions by individual farm households had been significantly regulated by the government until recently. We narrow this knowledge gap. We assess how many types of food items households grow on their farms, and how much food they produce per land and household members. We then evaluate whether these production characteristics are related to how many types of food are consumed by the household overall and individual women in this household. We use data that consists of households and individual women of reproductive ages who were interviewed in 2015 and again in 2023 in the Khatlon province of Tajikistan. We apply a statistical method that focuses on how their food production practices and food consumption diversity changed over this period and a method to classify food consumption patterns into key groups. We find that if a household produces more types of food and produces it in large quantities, this household, as well as female members of this household, consumes more types of food. This pattern holds particularly firmly in areas far from markets where food items are sold. Among types of food, consuming fruits, legumes/nuts/seeds, dairy products, and eggs is particularly important in increasing the overall number of the types of food consumed. If a household produces each of these types of food by themselves, the household overall and its female members are more likely to consume each of them. It is important to support Tajik households in remote areas in producing more varieties of foods on their own.