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This purpose of this study was to assess dietary diversity among women of reproductive age (WRA) and the associations between consumption of a diversified diet and overweight/obesity statuses in Ekiti State, Nigeria.

Cross-sectional study of 207 WRA from six local government areas in Ekiti State, Nigeria, was done. A validated interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to collect data on sociodemographic characteristics, dietary intake and anthropometry. Dietary intake was assessed with 24-h dietary recall to calculate the Minimum Dietary Diversity Score for Women (MDD-W). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Spearman rank correlation and Chi square test at α_0.05.

Majority of the participants (65.2%) were aged between 19 and 34 years, 58.5% were married and 49.8% had high school as their highest level of education. Mean MDD-W and body mass index (BMI) were 3.8 ± 0.9 and 25.46 ± 6.4 kg/m², respectively. All participants (100%) consumed foods from the “grains, white roots and tubers” group and majority also from the “meat and poultry” group (79.7%) but ranked low in the consumption of foods from other food groups. Many were overweight (34.8%), obese (14.0%) and a few (1.9%) had morbid obesity. MDD-W was significantly associated with marital status (X² = 7.7, P = 0.022) and BMI (X² = 11.4, P = 0.023) and had a weak positive correlation with BMI (r = 0.189, P = 0.007).

Study shows that both undernutrition and overweight/obesity coexist in the population, indicating a case of double burden of malnutrition (DBM) at a population level. However, further studies may be needed to investigate the extent of DBM at individual levels. Although there was a positive correlation between MDD-W and BMI, it cannot be used to predict causality. Study further reveals that the micronutrient intake of the WRA population in Ekiti is inadequate. Considering the importance of the 10 food groups highlighted in MDD_W to nutrition and health, the promotion of the consumption of foods from these food groups with more attention to the micronutrient-rich ones needs to be heightened.

Diet of participants was not diverse enough, indicating micronutrient inadequacy. Promotion of the consumption of a diverse diet, particularly from the food groups rich in micronutrient, needs to be heightened, while food groups high in calorie should be minimally consumed to forestall DBM.

The nexus between sustainable agri-food production and food security outcomes of farm households in sub-Saharan Africa is attracting policy attention. This study analyzes the effects of crop diversity on the incidence of food scarcity, dietary diversity, and the sale and consumption of own crops.

The study uses panel data collected in 2015 and 2018 on a randomly selected sample of 2553 households from 49 villages in northern Ghana. The study employed a fixed effects modeling approach in the empirical analysis.

The study finds that crop diversity is positively associated with better dietary diversity, reduced hunger, lower food expenditure, and higher consumption of own produce. The results show positive effects of crop diversity on the total harvested output and sale of agricultural production. Whilst sales improved sustainable food and nutrition security by providing purchasing power to buy nutritional inputs in the market, consumption of own produce rather improved food availability by reducing food scarcity and malnutrition.

Crop diversity is one of the pathways for promoting sustainable agri-food production systems to ensure the food and nutritional security of vulnerable populations and promote biodiversity to achieve environmental goals in sub-Saharan Africa. Crop diversity reduces food expenditure and raises rural incomes through improved outputs and sales, which empowers farm households to diversify their dietary options to be able to overcome incidences of hunger and malnutrition in periods of food scarcity.

The present study improves the understanding of sustainable agri-food production through crop diversity and its implications on food and nutrition security outcomes. The panel data and fixed effects modelling approach address the endogeneity problem between crop diversity and household tastes and preferences.

This study aims to examine the association between minimum dietary diversity (MDD) and the concurrence of stunting and overweight (CSO) among children aged 6–23 months.

A cross-sectional study was conducted in Sedayu Subdistrict, Bantul District, Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta. The authors assessed the concurrence of stunting (height-for-age Z-score below −2 standard deviations SD) and overweight/obesity (Body mass index BMI-for-age Z-score above +2 SD) among a total of 189 children aged 6–23 months as the primary outcome. The authors defined MDD as consuming at least four out of seven food groups using a single 24-h recall. The authors also included other covariates, including sociodemographic characteristics, exclusive breastfeeding history and complementary feeding practices. To identify the factors associated with CSO, this study conducted multiple logistic regression across the study variables using STATA 16.1.

In the adjusted model, children who met the MDD criterion were associated with a reduced risk of CSO (adjusted odds ratios [OR]: 0.14; 95%confidence interval CI: 0.03–2.43). Compared to boys, girls were more likely to experience CSO (adjusted OR: 5.23; 95%CI: 1.02–26.9). Middle economic status was a protective factor for CSO (adjusted OR: 0.10; 95%CI: 0.01–0.98). This study did not find a significant relationship between CSO and the child’s age, low birth weight, exclusive breastfeeding, energy intake, protein intake, parental education and parental occupation.

This study suggests future programs and policies that promote dietary diversity to reduce the risk of CSO.

This study reveals the association between MDD and the coexistence of stunting and overweight.

This paper aims to investigate the changes in living standard among families with different socio-economic status in China with the use of Engel's Coefficient. The authors develop a decomposition methodology to figure out the driving forces behind changes in Engel's Coefficient, and investigate how dramatic economic growth, volatile food price and rapid nutrition transition affect living standard among different families.

The authors propose a statistical method to decompose the changes in living standard measured by Engel's Coefficient into structure effect, price effect, quantity effect and income effect. Using the China Health and Nutrition Survey data between 2000 and 2011, the authors estimate these four effects by employing a decomposition method.

Results show that Engel's Coefficient in China decreased by 8.7 percentage points (hereafter “pp”) during 2000–2011, where structure effect leads to 0.2 pp increase, price effect results in 17.7 pp increase, quantity effect brings about 12.4 pp decline and income effect contributes to 14.2 pp decline. Results indicate that rising food prices are the main obstacle to improve households' living standard. Typically, poor and rural families' living standard is more vulnerable to the rise in food prices, and they benefit less from income growth.

This study proposes a decomposition method to investigate the determinants of change in Engel's Coefficient, which provides a deeper understanding of how economic growth, food price change and nutrition transition affect people's living standard in different socio-economic groups in developing countries. This study also provides valuable insights on how to achieve common prosperity from the perspective of consumption upgrading.

This study examined the impact of the Input Credit Scheme (ICS) by the Integrated Water Management and Agriculture Development (IWAD) on the productivity and food security of smallholder rice farmers in Ghana.

Cross-sectional data from 250 rice farming households in the Mamprugu Moagduri district of the North East Region obtained from a multi-stage sampling technique were used for the study. Inverse Probability Weighted Regression Adjustment (IPWRA), Propensity Score Matching (PSM) and Kendall's coefficient of concordance were the methods of analysis employed.

Empirical results show that education, rice farming experience, dependency ratio, FBO membership, farm size and farm age were the significant factors influencing participation in the input credit scheme (ICS). Also, participants had an average rice productivity of 1,476.83 kg/ha, whereas non-participants had 1,131.81 kg/ha implying that participants increased their productivity by about 30%. In addition, the study revealed that participant households increased their household dietary diversity (HDDS) by 0.45 points amounting to about 8% diversity in their diets. High-interest rates associated with credit received, the short periods of credit repayment and the high cost of inputs provided under the scheme were the most challenging constraints associated with partaking in the ICS.

The available literature on agricultural interventions have predominantly emphasized input credit as a key factor for improving cropt productivity and food security of smallholders. This study provides compelling evidence that participation in ICSs can result in substantial benefits for agricultural development, as evidenced by increased productivity leading to improved food security. The significance of these findings is highlighted by the fact that, through participation in input credit schemes, smallholder rice farmers in many developing countries see substantial improvement in their capacity to access productive resources, thereby improving their productivity, while simultaneously reducing food insecurity.

Leveraging on the improved productivity of participants in the ICS, this study advocates that such input credit schemes should scale up to more food-insecure farming communities in Ghana.

The study uses a doubly robust econometric approach to evaluate the impact of ICS on smallholder rice farmers' productivity and food security in Ghana, making it the first of its kind. The findings offer a solid basis for future research and provide guidance for policymakers looking to boost agricultural development in Ghana.

Edible flowers have traditionally been consumed for their nutritional and medicinal properties. Aponogeton distachyos is an aquatic flowering plant native to the Western Cape of South Africa (SA) that used to be a wild plant gathered during the winter months, but it is now considered to be underutilised and endangered. This study aims at gaining insights from different stakeholders into the activities across the plant value chain and their impact on the consumption of Aponogeton distachyos.

The study methodology involved the identification of different stakeholders in the plant value chain and conducting qualitative in-depth interviews during the data collection. Twelve study participants were selected via purposive sampling and interviewed using semi-structured interviews (face-to-face, telephone and online).

Nostalgic connection of the flower with local culture and heritage and its unique taste and flavour are key consumption drivers. Promotional and educational efforts by food advocates and at public events help raise consumer awareness, which is generally lacking. Limited geographic and seasonal availability, perishability, price and quality issues emerged, together with low awareness, as main barriers to more frequent and geographically spread consumption.

Although wild edible flowers have been consumed for centuries, there has been little attention to their nutritional value and journey to their final consumers. The present study identifies important challenges emanating at different stages of the food value chain to consumption of one particular neglected and underutilised plant, with certain implications for people's dietary quality, environmental sustainability and biodiversity of natural resources beyond Aponogeton distachyos and SA.

(1)Aponogeton distachyos is a neglected and underutilised aquatic flowering plant native to the Western Cape of South Africa (SA). (2)The plant offers benefits related to people's dietary quality, environmental sustainability and biodiversity of natural resources. (3)Flower's nostalgic connection with local culture and heritage emerge as a key consumption driver. (4)Its unique taste and flavour highly appeal to consumers. (5)Low awareness, limited availability, price and quality are main consumption barriers. (6)There is largely unexploited public policy potential for supporting dietary diversity through growing edible flowers.

This study aims to investigate the food choice motivations of rural households using a cross-sectional dataset of 510 households from northwest Vietnam interviewed in 2016.

A modified Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ) is used to assess factors related to food choice and explore relationships between food choice factors, diet quality and various sociodemographic characteristics.

Results show four distinct food choice factors: “Natural and healthy,” “Familiarity,” “Balanced diet” and “Convenience.” Two distinct consumer clusters are identified: “Health-conscious” households and “Pragmatic” households. “Health-conscious” households rank “Balanced diet” and “Natural and healthy” highly, while “Pragmatic” households prioritize “Convenience” and “Familiarity.” “Health-conscious” households have significantly more diverse diets, are wealthier and have a greater geographic concentration in the high vegetable density per capita-high elevation areas (36%). Their main food preparers are more educated and about 13% have Kinh ethnicity.

Further research is warranted to explore the temporal dimension of parental food choice motivations given the changing agrifood system in Vietnam.

This study is one of the few studies that assess the food choice motivations among ethnic minority groups in a rural setting.

Covid-19 is a serious threat to the dietary quality of vulnerable communities in developing countries with limited economic resources. This study explored the implications of COVID-19 on daily dietary behavior and food consumption patterns of perishable and nonperishable food commodities based on the gender of household headship in Pakistan.

The data was collected through an online survey using the snowball sampling technique. A mixed design ANOVA, an independent t-test and a multivariate probit model were used to look at the data from 417 female-headed households and 1,131 male-headed households that were surveyed in the study.

Female-headed households experienced a greater decrease in their daily intake of perishable and nonperishable food commodities compared to male-headed households during COVID-19. The decrease in consumption of perishable food commodities was greater than the decrease in nonperishable food commodities for both female-headed and male-headed households. Female-headed households witnessed the largest decrease in daily intake of animal-derived foods, while male-headed households observed the highest diminution in consumption of fruits. Female-headed households and male-headed households reduced their consumption of perishable food commodities by more than one-third and one-fifth, respectively. Households with lower socioeconomic status reported higher reductions in their daily intakes of food commodities compared to households with higher socioeconomic status.

The cross-sectional nature of the collected data does not allow the development of a causal relationship between COVID-19 implications and food consumption changes in daily dietary patterns.

Dietary and consumption patterns of populations are changing worldwide due to COVID-19. There is no study to assist policymakers in determining how COVID-19 is affecting the daily food consumption patterns of perishable and non-perishable food commodities of households based on gender in the developing world.

This study aims to investigate the determinants of the food security status of participants and non-participants of livestock extension services living under similar socioeconomic conditions as livestock farming households in the Feed the Future zone of Bangladesh.

Cross-sectional data of 906 farm-households extracted from a total of 2064 from the Feed the Future representative Bangladesh Integrated Households Survey 2018 were used. A triple hurdle model combined with a structural equation model were used to analyze the data. The causal relationship between food security status, livestock extension services, technology adoption and women's empowerment was investigated by estimating structural equation modeling with second-order latent factors.

The results indicate that livestock extension services have increased livestock technology adoption and have a positively significant (p < 0.01) relationship with household wealth, food security, welfare and women's empowerment.

The results suggest that livestock extension services have an impact on new technology adoption and enhancing women's empowerment; thus, the services should be widely made available in the region.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-11-2021-0647.

The application of global indices of nutrition and food sustainability in public health and the improvement of product profiles has facilitated effective actions that increase food security. In the research reported here we develop index measurements further so that they can be applied to food categories and be used by food processors and manufacturers for specific food supply chains. This research considers how they can be used to assess the sustainability of supply chain operations by stimulating more incisive food loss and waste reduction planning. The research demonstrates how an index driven approach focussed on improving both nutritional delivery and reducing food waste will result in improved food security and sustainability. Nutritional improvements are focussed on protein supply and reduction of food waste on supply chain losses and the methods are tested using the food systems of Kenya and India where the current research is being deployed. Innovative practices will emerge when nutritional improvement and waste reduction actions demonstrate market success, and this will result in the co-development of food manufacturing infrastructure and innovation programmes. The use of established indices of sustainability and security enable comparisons that encourage knowledge transfer and the establishment of cross-functional indices that quantify national food nutrition, security and sustainability. The research presented in this initial study is focussed on applying these indices to specific food supply chains for food processors and manufacturers.