Does household access to agricultural land influence nutritional outcomes in developing countries? Evidence from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)
Janvier Mwisha-Kasiwa
Despite the huge agricultural potential of DRC, the majority of the Congolese population remains largely vulnerable to food insecurity, malnutrition and hunger. While 71.0% of the labour force are employed in agriculture, there is a contrast between that proportion and the outcomes in terms of food and nutrition security. This paper investigates the effects of household access to farmland on the nutritional outcomes by examining gender differences in a developing country context. It specifically highlights the role of access to farmland in the promotion of dietary diversity and nutritional status of children under five and women of reproductive age. It uses data from the 2014 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) conducted in DRC by the National Ministries of Planning and Public Health, with the support from MEASURE DHS, UNICEF, UNFPA, World Bank, USAID and other International donors. The sample is representative at the national level with 18,171 households. The feeding and nutrition module of the survey was administrated to 9,985 women and 9,030 children under five. Based on OLS regressions, multivariate analyses showed that access to farmland significantly increases the children’s dietary diversity score by 0.18 and 0.24 in full sample and male-headed households’ subsample, respectively. In addition, access to farmland increases the children nutritional status by 0.18 height-for-age z-scores (HAZ) in the male-headed households. The Logistic model estimates indicated that access to farmland increases by 3% and 4% the probability of having a normal Body Mass Index for women in the full sample and subsample of male headed households. Access to farmland is also associated with a -2%, -2% and -3% decrease in the risk for a woman to be anemic in the full sample and the subsamples of male and female-headed households respectively. Using Oaxaca– Blinder decomposition, it was found a gender gap of 0.309 in the under-five children’s HAZ. But this gender gap is primarily accounted for the difference in the effect of coefficients rather than by difference in the determinants of HAZ.
Event: World Bank Land Conference 2024 - Washington
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