World Food Policy Volume 2, Number 1, Spring 2015 | Page 85

World Food Policy

dairy farmers, as has been shown
in India (Bhagowalia, Headey,
and Kadiyala 2012), Rwanda
(Pimkina et al. 2013), or Ethiopia
(Hoddinott, Headey, and Dereje
2013). In addition, specializing
in a commercial crop entails an
income risk. An adverse event
affecting the commercial crop may
lead to a drop in household income
and potentially a drop in food
purchases. For example, in Kenya,
in 1984, it was found that farming
households living in irrigated
areas had an income based on
commercial rice and had poorer
nutritional indicators (stunting)
than households not living there
with more diversified sources of
incomes (Niemeijer and Hoorweg
1994).
3. Income uses: For example, extra
income may be used for purposes
other than buying food. In some
countries and under different
circumstances, it has been shown
that the income elasticity of
food consumption, or calorie
consumption or nutriment intake
might be null or even negative in
certain cases. For example, Skoufias
et al. (2009) found in Mexico, that
“for the poorest households, the
deficiency of total energy, protein,
and zinc is not accompanied by a
positive income elasticity.”
4. The person controlling the income:
Income controlled by women is used
more for food expenditure and has
positive impacts on child nutrition
(Marek 1992). Interventions that
tend to reduce income controlled
by women (even if the men get

more income) therefore run the
risk of producing negative impacts
on nutrition (see risk 4).
5. Change in income regularity: A
regular income, even small one, is
used more for food than a larger
but less regular one (Von Braun
and Kennedy 1986; IYCN 2011).
Strong income seasonality prevents
households, who buy when prices
are highest, from covering their
annual needs. The period of higher
prices also corresponds with peaks
in the prevalence of water-related
illnesses and workload peaks
(Devereux and Longhurst 2010).

Altogether, the ADIs whose main
objective is to raise income of the poor/
farmers might not always end with the
improvement in nutrition. One has to be
aware that the additional income might
be gained at the expenses of other sources
of income (nonagricultural income) or
resources (food) which might not be
properly replaced. And that the use of
additional income is not always directed
to food expenditures nor adequate food,
nor for the ones who are in deficit.
2. Risk of a mismatch in food availabilities
and diversity: macro and “meso” (market
chain, regional development) levels.

B

y focusing on certain specific products,
ADIs affect the nature and quantity of
available foods. They may have negative
impacts on energy quantities (too much
or not enough) and on available nutrients.
This may be the case when agricultural
policies encourage specialization at the
expense of the availability and diversity of
foodstuffs.

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