Confronting food insecurity through agricultural interventions: the Farmer FIRST program in India

Area of Science:

• Agricultural Science
• Nutrition Science
• Development Studies

Background:

• Malnutrition and food insecurity are critical global challenges.
• Nutrition-sensitive agricultural interventions are key to addressing these issues.
• The Farmer, Farm, Innovation, Resources, Science, and Technology (FIRST) Program (FFP) in India aims to enhance farmer livelihoods and national food security.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of FFP's nutrition-sensitive interventions on food security in 15 agroecological zones.
• To assess changes in food availability, purchasing power, food gap, and food diversity.

Main Methods:

• Utilized propensity score matching with difference-in-difference (D-i-D) for unbiased impact estimation.
• Assessed food availability at macro (per capita) and micro (yield increase) levels.
• Measured purchasing power via additional income, food gap using cereal equivalent quantity (CEQ), and food diversity with Barry's index.

Main Results:

• Cereal availability increased by 147.74% in the Northern Plain; pulses grew over 200% in three regions.
• Incremental per capita farm income exceeded INR 20,000 in several zones, with over a 21-fold increase in the Northern Plain.
• Food diversity saw marginal improvement, and 1,915 households experienced enhanced nutritional security.

Conclusions:

• FFP interventions significantly improved dietary intake and food security.
• Nutrition-sensitive agriculture under FFP effectively reduced undernutrition by enhancing food availability and purchasing power.