Dietary Diversity and Women’s BMI among Farm Households in Rural India

The evidence on the link between agriculture and nutrition has so far been tenuous. On the one hand, undernutrition rates are severe and more widespread among those involved in agriculture. This evidence is more pronounced when the households or regions with agricultural predominance are compared with non-agricultural regions (Dahiya and Viswanathan, 2015). Countries and regions that have faster economic growth caused by structural transformation from agricultural to nonagricultural activities, with an accompanied shift in the pattern of employment, have reduced undernutrition at a faster rate. On the other hand, studies show that wherever there are policies which favour agriculture or regions which have sustained a high growth rate in value from agriculture, poverty and undernutrition are both lower (De Janvry and Sadoulat, 2001 and Webb and Block, 2011).