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Assessing food and nutrition security in Nepal: evidence from diet diversity and food expenditure patterns

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Abstract

The widespread prevalence of nutrient deficiency and poor nutritional outcomes has been a significant concern in developing and emerging countries like Nepal. The level of diversity in household diets is an indirect measure of diet quality and the extent to which nutritional needs of households are being met. However, there is a limited understanding on the trends, patterns and determinants of the dietary diversity in Nepal. This study is an attempt to enrich the literature on this issue. Based on unit level data from three rounds (1995, 2004, and 2011) of the Nepal Living Standard Survey (NLSS), we used multilevel modeling, quantile regression, and the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition method to decipher the trends, determinants and drivers of dietary diversity in Nepal. Our study finds that the changes in household socio-demographic and agricultural characteristics are very important in explaining the improvement in dietary quality. Changes in household characteristics account for at least 37% of the observed improvement and agriculture-related changes explain at least 16% of the observed improvement. Our findings are highly robust across the different model specifications and concludes by bringing a focus on multi-sectoral approach to tackle nutrition issues in Nepal.

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Notes

  1. The share of staples in the diet, termed dietary diversity (DD), is conceived as a health-related indicator for dietary quality and is associated with adequate nutrient/micronutrient intakes (Hatløy et al. 1998; Steyn et al. 2006; Kennedy et al. 2007; Arimond et al. 2010; Kumar et al. 2016). DD is measured as the percentage of dietary energy available from food staples (e.g., wheat, rice, maize), in the total dietary energy available.

  2. Due to space and brevity we do not report these estimates in the results table. Readers can obtain these directly from the corresponding author.

  3. Results are not shown for brevity but are available upon request.

  4. Sometimes dietary diversity and dietary quality have been used interchangeably.

  5. Households farming <0.33 ha are categorized as marginal farms; 0.33- < 0.66 ha are categorized as small farms; 0.66- < 2 ha are categorized as medium farms; > = 2 ha categorized as large farms.

  6. Poor households are defined as those who have annual per-capita consumption expenditure below a threshold level of consumption expenditure. NLSS III used Rs 19,261 as a threshold while NLSS I used different thresholds depending on the agroecological regions. For households residing in Terai, Hill and Mountain regions, the threshold levels were Rs 4408.6, Rs 5305.49 and Rs 5276.69, respectively.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), New Delhi, India

    Anjani Kumar & P. K. Joshi

  2. Consultant (Economist), Asian Development Bank, Kathmandu, Nepal

    Ganesh Thapa

  3. Morrison School of Agribusiness, W. P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA

    Ashok K. Mishra

Authors
  1. Anjani Kumar
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  2. Ganesh Thapa
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  3. Ashok K. Mishra
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  4. P. K. Joshi
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Correspondence to Anjani Kumar.

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Appendix

Appendix

Fig. 3
figure 3

Distribution of dietary diversity, rural and urban households, Nepal, 2011

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Fig. 4
figure 4

Distribution of dietary diversity, farmers and non-farmers, Nepal, 2011

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Fig. 5
figure 5

Distribution of dietary diversity, poor and non-poor households, Nepal, 2011

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Table 12 Robustness test using quantile regression
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Table 13 Robustness test: Determinants of expenditure share of staple foods
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Kumar, A., Thapa, G., Mishra, A.K. et al. Assessing food and nutrition security in Nepal: evidence from diet diversity and food expenditure patterns. Food Sec. 12, 327–354 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-019-01004-y

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