Food Security, Poverty and Nutrition Policy Analysis

Suresh C Babu is a Senior Research Fellow and Head of Capacity Strengthening at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Washington D.C. Before joining IFPRI in 1992 as a Research Fellow, Dr. Babu was a Research Economist at the Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. Between 1989 and 1994 he spent 5 years in Malawi, Southern Africa on various capacities. He was Senior Food Policy Advisor to the Malawi Ministry of Agriculture on developing a national level Food and Nutrition Information System; an Evaluation Economist for the UNICEF-Malawi working on designing food and nutrition intervention programs; Coordinator of UNICEF/IFPRI food security program in Malawi; and a Senior Lecturer at the Bunda College of Agriculture, Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANR). He has been coordinator of IFPRI’s South Asia Initiative and Central Asia Program. His past research covers a range of developmental issues including nutrition economics and policy, economics of soil fertility, famine prevention, market integration, migration, pesticide pollution, groundwater depletion, and gender bias in development. He has published more than 18 books and monographs and 80 peer reviewed journal papers. He has been on the advisory board of World Agricultural Forum and a Coordinating Lead Author of Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. He currently conducts research on Capacity Development including Economic Analysis of Extension and Advisory Services; Reforming of National agricultural Research Systems; Understanding Policy Process; and Institutional Innovations for Agricultural Transformation. He is or has been a Visiting as Honorary Professor of Indira Gandhi National Open University, India, American University, Washington DC, University of Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa, and Zhejiang University, China. He currently serves or has served on the editorial boards of the following journals – Food Security, Food and Nutrition Bulletin, Agricultural Economics Research Review, African Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, African Journal of Management, and African Journal of Food, Nutrition, and Development. Dr. Babu was educated at Agricultural Universities in Tamil Nadu, India (B.S. Agriculture; M.S. Agriculture) and at Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa (M.S. Economics and PhD Economics).

Preface Introduction Section I: Food Security Policy Analysis Introduction to Section I: Food Security Policy Analysis Chapter 1. Introduction to Food Security: Concepts and Measurement Chapter 2. Implications of Technological Change, Post-Harvest Technology and Technology Adoption for Improved Food Security– Application of t- Statistic Chapter 3. Effects of Commercialization of Agriculture (Shift from Traditional Cropto Cash Crop) on Food Consumption and Nutrition– Application of Chi-square Statistic Chapter 4. Effects of Commercialization of Agriculture or Technology Adoption and Gender of Household Head: The Issue, its Importance in Food Security – Application of Cramer’s V and Phi Coefficient Chapter 5. Changes in Food Consumption Patterns: The Issue and its Importance toFood Security – Application of One-way ANOVA Chapter 6. Impact of Market Access on Food Security – Application of Factor analysis Section II: Nutrition Policy AnalysisIntroduction to Section II: Nutrition Policy Analysis Chapter 7. Impact of Maternal Education and Care on Preschoolers’ Nutrition – Application of Two-way ANOVA Chapter 8. Indicators and Causal Factors of Nutrition – Application of Correlation Analysis Chapter 9. Effects of Individual, Household and Community Indicators on Child’s Nutritional Status – Application of Simple Linear Regression Chapter 10. Female education and Community Characteristics as Indicators of Nutritional Status of Children–Application of Multivariate Regression Section III: Special Topics on Poverty, Nutrition, and Food Policy AnalysisIntroduction to Section III: Special Topics on Poverty, Nutrition and Food Policy AnalysisChapter 11. Predicting Child Nutritional Status Using related Socio-economic Variables – Application of Discriminant Function Analysis Chapter 12. Measurement and Determinants of Poverty- Application of Logistic Regression Models Chapter 13. Classifying Households on Food Security and Poverty Dimensions – Application of K-mean Cluster Analysis Chapter 14. Household Care as a Determinant of Nutritional Status- Application of Instrumental Variable Estimation Chapter 15. Achieving an Ideal Diet – Modeling with Linear Programming Technical AppendicesStatistical Tables Bibilography