Mixed
For rural smallholder households, market-purchased foods contribute more to dietary diversity than subsistence production, regardless of season or nutrition status.
If you rely on farming for food, you must also engage with local markets to get a diverse diet. Growing many crops does not equal eating many food groups. To improve nutrition, prioritize income generation (farm or off-farm) to buy a variety of foods, especially perishables like vegetables, fruits, and animal products, which are rarely stored from harvest.
Over 80% of the food diversity is purchased in the market... Only a relatively small part of the dietary diversity comes from subsistence production.
Why this rating
Based on a large, nationally representative, longitudinal dataset (10,322 households, 12 months) from a developing country context.
Source
Rural food security, subsistence agriculture, and seasonality
Kibrom T. Sibhatu et al. · PLoS ONE · 2017
DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0186406
More from this paper
- Market-purchased foods contribute significantly to calorie consumption (42% on average) even during harvest seasons, and become the primary source (>50%) during lean seasons.Good
- Off-farm income is a critical mechanism for smoothing food consumption and maintaining dietary diversity during the lean season.Good
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