Agricultural Diversification, Market Participation, and Dietary Diversity and Quality in Rural Türkiye
Makaleler > Tam Makale · 2025
Yazarlar: Neville N. Suh, Canan Fisun ABAY
Agribusiness, Uluslararası, Wos, 2025
DOI: 10.1002/agr.70039
Özet
ABSTRACT Malnutrition and the consumption of unhealthy diets remain a global challenge. Most of the malnourished and food‐insecure people live in poor rural communities, where farming is the main livelihood activity. Using robust data collected from a random cross‐sectional sample of 268 households, we investigate whether farmers' involvement in agricultural diversification contributes to dietary diversity and quality in poor rural Türkiye. We also examine whether market participation influences the association between agricultural diversification and dietary diversity and quality. The results illustrate a statistically significant influence of five agricultural diversification indicators on three dietary diversity and quality indices over a 24‐h recall period, with the livestock richness score more strongly correlated across different dietary diversity and quality indices than the crop richness score. Furthermore, we find that the heterogeneous associations between market participation and agricultural diversification significantly influence higher dietary diversity and quality indices over a 24‐h recall period. Own production of tubers and livestock (meat) increased dietary diversity and quality, while the own production of olive crops (oils) did not increase dietary diversity. Own production of tubers significantly increased own consumption of tubers, while own production of cereals, tubers, vegetables, meat, egg, milk and dairy, and oils food groups significantly increased own consumption of other food groups. The overall influence of agricultural diversification on households' dietary diversity and quality in poor rural Türkiye is modest, mainly due to the low levels of diversification.