Nexus between Land Inequity and Stunting in Children — Insights from District Level Analysis for India

Exploring the role of agriculture in food and nutrition security by focusing on land distribution dimension is the main objective of this study. Child stunting has been used as the food and nutritional security variable in the present study as it indicates the long-term impact of malnutrition. For this, district level data for 10 major states, on the extent of stunting in children below 5 years age from recent National Family Health Survey (2015–16) has been used. The other relevant data were collected from Agricultural Census 2010–11, Input Survey 2011–12, and Census-2011. For study, the base model was augmented with inclusion of variables like, women education, extent of sanitation and drinking water facility in households, etc. with state-specific dummy variables. The study has indicated that across the selected 255 districts, land inequity and share of EAAP interaction variable have a negative influence on child stunting. The women literacy, women work participation, and improved sanitation facilities influence stunting in children negatively, but women agricultural labourers share influence positively. The study has highlighted the need for focusing on multi-dimensional influence of agricultural sector on food and nutritional security.