Does Crop Diversification Enhance Household Food and Nutritional Security in Manipur? Application of Heckman Sample Selection Model

Crop diversification being one of the strategies to enhance farm income can also improve food and nutritional outcomes of the farming households through two pathways, viz. production of crops for own consumption and marketing of crop produce that affects household income and food purchasing decisions. Hence, this study has applied Heckman Sample Selection model on the primary data collected from 200 random households to analyse the causal link between crop diversification and food and nutritional security of the farming households in Manipur. The study has found that differences in food security and nutritional outcomes exist between households that diversified their crop production and those who did not. The households that diversified their cropping activities could secure 4.35 per cent higher food security than the households drawn at random from the population with average set of characteristics. The findings have suggested implementation of suitable location-specific policy mix to improve nutrition and farm income of households in fragile and landlocked states, like Manipur.