Research

Mixed

Crop diversification and livestock ownership in Indian agriculture are positively associated with improved dietary diversity and animal-sourced food consumption, independent of household income.

For rural agricultural households, simply increasing income is not enough to ensure good nutrition. Interventions should encourage growing a wider variety of crops and owning livestock, as these directly increase the availability of diverse foods and milk, improving dietary quality regardless of cash earnings.

ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
crop diversification seems to show a positive association with dietary diversification... livestock assets appear to be a very important determinant of animal-sourced foods... cow and buffalo ownership was strongly associated with household milk consumption
Suneetha Kadiyala et al. · Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2014

Why this rating

Based on observational studies with multivariate modeling; no RCTs found, but multiple high-quality observational studies support the link.

Source

Agriculture and nutrition in India: mapping evidence to pathways

Suneetha Kadiyala et al. · Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2014

DOI 10.1111/nyas.12477

narrative_reviewCited 257×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

This is one finding among thousands. Every one is graded and traced to its source, so you can see what the evidence actually supports. Browse the research →