Open AccessFarm production diversity and women’s dietary diversity: Evidence from central Tunisia
Author(s) -
Cédric Gaillard,
Eric O. Verger,
Sandrine Dury,
MarieClaude Dop,
Jalila El Ati,
AUTHOR_ID
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0263276
Subject(s) - diversity (politics) , agriculture , dietary diversity , context (archaeology) , crop diversity , diversification (marketing strategy) , agricultural productivity , endogeneity , agricultural diversification , geography , biology , business , food security , ecology , economics , political science , archaeology , marketing , law , econometrics
In the context of studies on the effects of agricultural production diversity, there are debates in the scientific community as to the level of diversification appropriate for improving dietary diversity. In Tunisia, agriculture is a strategic sector for the economy and a critical pillar of its food sovereignty. Using instrumental variable methods to account for endogeneity, we have estimated the association between agricultural production diversity and women’s dietary diversity among smallholder farming households in the Sidi Bouzid governorate (central Tunisia). Although we found a low level of agricultural production diversity and a fairly diversified diet among women, we observed a systematic weak positive association between five different indicators of agricultural production diversity and women’s dietary diversity. We observed a stronger positive association between women’s dietary diversity and women being more educated and households being wealthier. Neither diversity of food supplies in food markets nor market distance were associated with women’s dietary diversity, whereas we observed a higher level of consumption of some products (dairy) when they were produced on the farm.