Assessing rural household nutrition security through the protein intake lens: Evidence from Semi-Arid regions of India

In the semi-arid regions of India, improving food and nutrition security is a development priority. Understanding the main drivers of household nutrition is intermediated by complex associations between multiple variables. These may include landholding size, the gender dynamics of how decisions about food are prioritized, household's disposable income, availability and accessibility to nutritious food, and the effect of prevalent farming systems. This study investigates into the complexity between livelihoods and nutritional status through assessing protein deficiency at a household level in semi-arid villages of India. We use data from 837 households for the year 2014 that was collected by ICRISAT under the Village Dynamics Studies in South Asia project from across 9 districts of 6 states of India. The study finds that household average daily protein intake levels in majority of the regions to be significantly lower than the recommended intake levels. The most important driver that explains household level protein deficiency is the consumption unit size. Women participation in decision making, household's expenditure level and farming systems that include higher proportion of millets and legumes, landholding size and households’ greater access to milk as well food choices as influenced by cultural and institutional factors are found to be other important drivers that explain differential protein intake and deficiency levels across the households. There is a need to transform food systems for healthier diets. Pulses, Millets and Livestock products can make important contributions to healthier diets. Such food system interventions require a convergence of technical innovation and institutional arrangements along with effective policies. Farming System for Nutrition models, nutrition sensitizing and awareness programs as well as greater efforts to promote gender equity could all contribute toward better nutrition security in the semi-arid regions of India.