The forested hills and rolling hills of Odisha state are home to some of India’s most vulnerable tribal groups, but a new study by researchers at Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT shows that empowering women reduces the likelihood of underweight children.

In 2020, according to World Health Organization (WHO) statistics, 828 million people worldwide suffered from hunger and nearly 3.1 billion people could not afford healthy food. India continues to struggle with food insecurity, malnutrition and rising rates of anemia among women and children, especially in rural and tribal areas such as the state of Odisha.

In recent years, there has been a growing body of research into how women’s empowerment – empowering women to make strategic life decisions and access resources – could help combat hunger. However, there is limited practical evidence on the impact of these interventions on food security, diet quality and childhood development.

In the article “Women’s Empowerment, Household Dietary Diversity, and Child Anthropometric Among Vulnerable Populations in Odisha, India,” published in the journal Plus OneResearchers from the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT used the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) to measure women’s empowerment in 1,900 farming households in 12 districts of the state of Odisha, India.

Sylvester Ogutu, a researcher at Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT and lead author of the study, explains that using this value and then comparing it with outcomes such as the number of different foods present in the household and the weight of children in relation to their age, provided a clear picture.

“Empowering women as primary caregivers contributes to better nutrition, health and education of children,” he says. “Empowering women in agricultural input use, sales, income and other decision-making areas (credit access, group membership and employment) has been associated with a reduction in the number of underweight and wasted children.”

Food diversity and better outcomes for children

Jonathan Mockshell, agricultural economist at Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, study leader and co-author of the paper, says that in terms of the impact of women’s empowerment on the Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS) – a snapshot of a household’s economic ability to access a variety of foods and a diverse diet – the study found that women’s empowerment contributes to improved food production and dietary diversity.

“The magnitude of the impact of women’s empowerment on dietary diversity was relatively small, suggesting that complementary interventions may be needed to achieve greater dietary diversity in households,” he says.

The researchers also measured the children’s height and weight and found that female empowerment significantly improved their weight-for-age Z-scores (WAZ) and weight-for-height Z-scores (WHZ), but not their height-for-age (HAZ).

“The improvements in Z-scores contributed to a reduction in the prevalence of underweight and wasting among children of mothers with higher empowerment scores,” says Mockshell.

The future

Ogutu explains that the study’s new findings on the impact of women’s empowerment on dietary diversity and child anthropometry in India’s vulnerable populations are crucial.

“However, the number of respondents to our data on children’s physical measurements such as weight and height was relatively low,” he says.

Mockshell says future studies could provide additional insights by examining the impact of female empowerment on child anthropometry using larger data sets.

“We also want to study other vulnerable populations in other geographic areas of the global South to see if we can identify similar trends,” he says.

This work builds on previous work by the authors on improving the lives of farmers in Odisha. In a 2023 article titled “Home gardens, household nutrition and income in rural farming households in Odisha, India”, published in the Journal of Agricultural Economics“The researchers have provided solid evidence that home gardens can improve food security, food quality and income in these rural farming communities.

This latest document is part of a broader initiative by the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT and the One CGIAR Initiative on National Policies and Strategies to generate evidence-based insights to support policy decisions on the role of women in agriculture.

In February 2024, researchers conducted a survey of over 1,500 smallholder farming households from the Sedhiou and Tambacounda regions of southern Senegal. 70% of respondents were women over 35. The aim of the survey was to empower women, who make up nearly 70% of Senegal’s agricultural workforce.

Provided by the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture