Rural Food Consumption Effects of Agricultural Policies: a Methodology (Farm Policy, Food Policy).

Abstract

This dissertation focuses on the design and testing of a methodology aiming to estimate the food consumption effects of agricultural policies in a rural milieu, on the basis of short-term fieldwork. Agricultural policies influence farmers' choices of crop combinations and cultivation practices, and thus the stock of food and the monetary income available to the family. This in turn partly determines food consumption and nutritional status. To better underst and and estimate the strength of these relationships data on farm production, marketing, income, food consumption and physical condition of family members were collected for 72 households through a village-level study combining elements of farming systems research, budget, dietary and anthropometric surveys. There was no lack of protein consumption, but there were serious deficiencies in caloric intake, intra and intervillage differences closely following the very uneven income distribution pattern. Although food consumption was highly correlated with total income over a broad range of values, anthropometric measurements failed to highlight the same relationship. The most successful village achieved higher yields and superior production through a careful integration of cattle into farming activities; this indicated that in many similar areas, an increase in agricultural productivity may be obtained with limited recourse to costly imported technology. Aside from being a typical urban staple, rice has come to play a major role on rural markets for families faced with a shortage of homegrown cereals. An increase in the price of rice might well lead to a reallocation of inputs from peanuts to cereals; the government's objective of maintaining the level of peanut oil export revenues therefore cannot be attained unless the domestic food supply is made more secure.