On-Farm Diversity and Market Participation Are Positively Associated with Dietary Diversity of Rural Mothers in Southern Benin, West Africa

“Diagnostic tests were carried out to determine the existence of endogeneity and to assess the validity of the instruments: Durbin–Wu–Hausman test for endogeneity, Sargan–Hansen test of overidentifying restrictions and the Weak Instrument test [61].”

“Increased access and participation in markets present great opportunities, but also challenges, for rural societies [13, 14].”

“It should be stressed however, that while the variables we use as instruments are predetermined and we have argued for their exogeneity, there are neither statistical tests nor narrative justification to entirely insure that they are uncorrelated with all unobservable determinants of the final outcome, as good instrum…”

“Farmers will tend to specialize in the crops where they have a comparative advantage, due to more opportunities to sell agricultural products, while purchasing the foods they consume [15], particularly since markets provide more diverse foods than any individual HH can produce.”

“Indices of DD are considered good, simple, reliable indicators of nutritional quality and adequacy [5, 6, 7, 8].”

“Despite increasing homogenization of the crop species that contribute to global food supplies [1], at a local level millions of rural households (HHs) throughout the developing world continue to rely on a diversity of plant species to feed themselves and to support their livelihoods.”

“Dietary diversity (DD) is universally recognized as a key component of healthy diets and is strongly associated with nutrient adequacy [4, 5].”

“In rural areas of the developing world, markets often function poorly with high transaction costs; this limits market participation and fosters selfconsumption [15, 16, 17, 18, 19].”

“Our study is observational, similar to previous studies that have looked at these relationships [3, 9, 10, 12, 24, 25, 26, 27]; and as those that recognize endogeneity as an issue [3, 12, 27], we have used an instrumental variable approach.”

“They are also some of the most nutritionally vulnerable members of rural HHs [43] and for whom there is very little information on dietary quality [8].”

“Our study is observational, similar to previous studies that have looked at these relationships [3, 9, 10, 12, 24, 25, 26, 27]; and as those that recognize endogeneity as an issue [3, 12, 27], we have used an instrumental variable approach.”

“This argument fits well with the narrative of the need to transform subsistence farmers into market-oriented ones [14, 65].”

“There are increasing calls and initiatives to promote OFD for self-consumption at farm level as a way to improve DD [9, 10, 32, 33].”

“Under these circumstances, HH decisions on production and consumption are not separable [19, 20] and so agricultural production influences HHs’ wellbeing not only directly through the income generated but also through the combination of crops produced [2].”

“It fits well with the recognized need to move towards more diversified production systems that deliver higher dietary quality and that look at the food system in a holistic way [68, 69].”

“Indices of DD are considered good, simple, reliable indicators of nutritional quality and adequacy [5, 6, 7, 8].”

“Furthermore there is emerging evidence that women empowerment has implications on how OFD relates to their own and their children’s diets [27].”

“A system of three simultaneous equations via a General- ized Methods of Moments was estimated to address potential endogeneity between dietary diversity and on-farm diversity and market diversity.”

“Markets can also offer HHs opportunities to benefit from growing a diverse portfolio of species or varieties by providing opportunities to exploit seasonality and fill particular market niches [21, 22, 23].”

“In these cases, influencing these relationships positively can lead to important improvements for rural populations and to better pathways for the transformation of local food systems [34].”

“These farmers may, therefore, face more heterogeneous production environments and need to match their crops or varieties to the appropriate conditions to optimize production [60] thus creating an exogenous incentive to maintain OFD that is independent of consumption decisions.”

“On the other hand however, the positive relationship between travel time and OFD suggests that transaction and opportunity costs which limit market opportunities and participation are present as well (travel time is widely used to proxy for these types of costs[16]) and foster OFD regardless of the type of market-shed…”

“Indices of DD are considered good, simple, reliable indicators of nutritional quality and adequacy [5, 6, 7, 8].”

“There are increasing calls and initiatives to promote OFD for self-consumption at farm level as a way to improve DD [9, 10, 32, 33].”

“Using moment conditions provide results that are asymptotically equivalent to those resulting from a full information instrumental variables efficient (FIVE) estimator [57].”

“At the HH level, our study centers on women of reproductive age (mothers) since they are responsible for preparing meals and rearing children and as such their decisions affect the whole HH [7, 41, 42].”

“Biases in intra-household allocation of food have been well documented [44], and may heighten their vulnerability.”

“Our study is observational, similar to previous studies that have looked at these relationships [3, 9, 10, 12, 24, 25, 26, 27]; and as those that recognize endogeneity as an issue [3, 12, 27], we have used an instrumental variable approach.”

“Surprisingly, very few studies have examined the link between OFD and DD in the developing world [9, 10, 11, 12].”

“In rural areas of the developing world, markets often function poorly with high transaction costs; this limits market participation and fosters selfconsumption [15, 16, 17, 18, 19].”

“This argument fits well with the narrative of the need to transform subsistence farmers into market-oriented ones [14, 65].”

“Markets can also offer HHs opportunities to benefit from growing a diverse portfolio of species or varieties by providing opportunities to exploit seasonality and fill particular market niches [21, 22, 23].”

“Our results provide empirical evidence of the existence of a positive relationship between OFD and DD among mothers in rural HHs in southern Benin, supporting similar findings of previous studies [3, 9, 10, 12, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28].”

“The semi-urban market-shed may combine features of both the urban and the rural marketsheds in terms of food consumption, being similar to the former for certain foods, but to the latter for others [64], thus suggesting a non-linearity in the way that opportunities for market participation relate to MD.”

“Our results provide empirical evidence of the existence of a positive relationship between OFD and DD among mothers in rural HHs in southern Benin, supporting similar findings of previous studies [3, 9, 10, 12, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28].”

“Our results provide empirical evidence of the existence of a positive relationship between OFD and DD among mothers in rural HHs in southern Benin, supporting similar findings of previous studies [3, 9, 10, 12, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28].”

“Rather than focusing exclusively on improving specialization, productivity and markets of one or two crops, there may be important opportunities to look at how to improve the composition and performance of a portfolio of species to deliver more food, better nutrition and higher income [9, 67].”

“It fits well with the recognized need to move towards more diversified production systems that deliver higher dietary quality and that look at the food system in a holistic way [68, 69].”

“Our results provide empirical evidence of the existence of a positive relationship between OFD and DD among mothers in rural HHs in southern Benin, supporting similar findings of previous studies [3, 9, 10, 12, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28].”

“Results are context specific [10] and can be controversial [29, 30, 31].”

“their diversity and with the challenges they entail, need to be better understood and influenced, an area that merits further research [66].”

“This link may be relatively simple in highly autarkic HHs [2].”

“Study sites were selected within a similar agro-ecological environment based on maize growing conditions [46], due to the importance of this crop for rural populations.”

“Results are context specific [10] and can be controversial [29, 30, 31].”

“Markets can also offer HHs opportunities to benefit from growing a diverse portfolio of species or varieties by providing opportunities to exploit seasonality and fill particular market niches [21, 22, 23].”

“Given that these are rainfed areas, climate variability—both spatially and temporal—should influence agricultural production and seasonality [63].”

“They are also some of the most nutritionally vulnerable members of rural HHs [43] and for whom there is very little information on dietary quality [8].”

“The set of villages within a district constitutes a ‘market-shed’ [45], providing different opportunities for HHs to participate in and be influenced by a network of markets.”

“Results are context specific [10] and can be controversial [29, 30, 31].”

“Application of the social values and dietary principle (9) impact nutrition directly, supported by maintaining and enhancing biodiversity (5) on fields and farms (Bellon et al. 2016; Bezner Kerr et al. 2019b; Demeke et al. 2017; Jones et al. 2014; Lachat et al. 2018; Powell et al. 2015).”

“This same trend was noted in Burkina Faso where local markets were observed to enhance agricultural biodiversity by providing an outlet for household production.(20) Furthermore, more highly diversified farms are commonly associated with higher household agricultural revenues, indicating the importance of diversificat…”

“Numerous studies have found a positive relationship between diversified farming systems and human nutritional outcomes for smallholder farms (Jones et al., 2014; Powell et al., 2015; Bellon et al., 2016; Demeke et al., 2017).”