Nutritional Impacts of Agricultural Diversification Programmes Among Farming Households in Kogi State

This study examines the nutritional impacts of agricultural diversification programmes on household dietary quality and child nutritional status among farming households in Kogi State, North Central Nigeria. Agricultural diversification, encompassing the expansion of crop and livestock variety in farm production systems, is theorised to improve nutrition by increasing the diversity and quantity of foods available for household consumption and sale. Several international development organisations have implemented agricultural diversification programmes in Kogi State, but rigorous nutritional impact evidence remains limited. This study uses a quasi-experimental design with propensity score matching, comparing dietary and nutritional outcomes between 200 programme participant households and 200 matched non-participants in Lokoja, Ijumu, and Yagba East local government areas. Nutritional outcomes include household dietary diversity score, women's dietary diversity score, child anthropometric status, and minimum dietary adequacy. Difference-in-differences estimation uses two survey rounds collected 18 months apart. Findings reveal that agricultural diversification programme participation significantly improves household dietary diversity scores by an average of 1.4 food groups and reduces stunting prevalence among children under five by 8 percentage points. The nutritional impact operates through both increased food availability and increased dietary income from diversified sales. The combination of production diversification with nutrition behaviour change communication produces the largest nutritional gains. The study concludes that agricultural diversification is an effective nutrition improvement strategy in Kogi State. It recommends nutrition-sensitive programme design standards for all agricultural diversification investments.

Keywords: agricultural diversification, nutrition, dietary diversity, child nutrition, Kogi State.