{"title":"The role of farm production diversity in enhancing dietary diversity and food security in Southern Bangladesh","authors":"Hazrat Ali, Khondker Murshed-e-Jahan","doi":"10.1007/s12571-025-01620-x","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Farm production diversification is widely recognized as a promising pathway to enhance household dietary diversity and food security, though its effectiveness varies across ecological and socioeconomic contexts. This study investigates the relationship between farm production diversity and household dietary diversity and food security in five climate-vulnerable districts of southern Bangladesh. Data were collected from 768 households between April and June 2023 using structured surveys stratified by salinity zones. Dietary diversity was measured through household dietary diversity scores and food variety scores, while food insecurity was assessed using the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale. Farm production diversity was quantified by the number of food groups produced, the Shannon diversity index, and food crop diversity. Poisson and ordered probit regression models were applied to estimate associations, controlling for market access, off-farm household income, household demographics, and environmental factors. The results reveal that greater production diversity is modestly but significantly associated with improved dietary diversity and reduced food insecurity, particularly in low and medium salinity zones. In high salinity areas, these associations were weaker or statistically insignificant, likely reflecting environmental constraints limiting production options. Market access, off-farm household income, education, and household size also played significant roles. These findings underscore the need for context-specific strategies that integrate production diversification with climate-resilient technologies, livelihood diversification, and improved market access to strengthen food security in climate-vulnerable rural communities.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":567,"journal":{"name":"Food Security","volume":"18 1","pages":"221 - 239"},"PeriodicalIF":4.5000,"publicationDate":"2025-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12571-025-01620-x.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Food Security","FirstCategoryId":"97","ListUrlMain":"https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12571-025-01620-x","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"FOOD SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Farm production diversification is widely recognized as a promising pathway to enhance household dietary diversity and food security, though its effectiveness varies across ecological and socioeconomic contexts. This study investigates the relationship between farm production diversity and household dietary diversity and food security in five climate-vulnerable districts of southern Bangladesh. Data were collected from 768 households between April and June 2023 using structured surveys stratified by salinity zones. Dietary diversity was measured through household dietary diversity scores and food variety scores, while food insecurity was assessed using the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale. Farm production diversity was quantified by the number of food groups produced, the Shannon diversity index, and food crop diversity. Poisson and ordered probit regression models were applied to estimate associations, controlling for market access, off-farm household income, household demographics, and environmental factors. The results reveal that greater production diversity is modestly but significantly associated with improved dietary diversity and reduced food insecurity, particularly in low and medium salinity zones. In high salinity areas, these associations were weaker or statistically insignificant, likely reflecting environmental constraints limiting production options. Market access, off-farm household income, education, and household size also played significant roles. These findings underscore the need for context-specific strategies that integrate production diversification with climate-resilient technologies, livelihood diversification, and improved market access to strengthen food security in climate-vulnerable rural communities.
期刊介绍:
Food Security is a wide audience, interdisciplinary, international journal dedicated to the procurement, access (economic and physical), and quality of food, in all its dimensions. Scales range from the individual to communities, and to the world food system. We strive to publish high-quality scientific articles, where quality includes, but is not limited to, the quality and clarity of text, and the validity of methods and approaches.
Food Security is the initiative of a distinguished international group of scientists from different disciplines who hold a deep concern for the challenge of global food security, together with a vision of the power of shared knowledge as a means of meeting that challenge. To address the challenge of global food security, the journal seeks to address the constraints - physical, biological and socio-economic - which not only limit food production but also the ability of people to access a healthy diet.
From this perspective, the journal covers the following areas:
Global food needs: the mismatch between population and the ability to provide adequate nutrition
Global food potential and global food production
Natural constraints to satisfying global food needs:
§ Climate, climate variability, and climate change
§ Desertification and flooding
§ Natural disasters
§ Soils, soil quality and threats to soils, edaphic and other abiotic constraints to production
§ Biotic constraints to production, pathogens, pests, and weeds in their effects on sustainable production
The sociological contexts of food production, access, quality, and consumption.
Nutrition, food quality and food safety.
Socio-political factors that impinge on the ability to satisfy global food needs:
§ Land, agricultural and food policy
§ International relations and trade
§ Access to food
§ Financial policy
§ Wars and ethnic unrest
Research policies and priorities to ensure food security in its various dimensions.