ARI Working Paper Series

The aim of this study is to examine the linkages between ownership of households’ agricultural landholding and child nutritional status in rural India. Agricultural landholding is a critical indicator of socioeconomic wellbeing in rural areas. More than 72 per cent of the working population in rural India is involved in agriculture as its main or marginal economic activity. Ownership of agricultural land and engagement in related activities not only makes access to food materials easy but also provides the crucial socioeconomic security that is essential to improve the nutritional status of the rural population in India. Our empirical analyses support theoretical arguments: bivariate analyses revealed that about 11 per cent more underweight children reside in households with no land or with marginal agricultural landholdings as compared to households with the larger size of agricultural landholdings. Similar differences are also observed in the case of child stunting and food security by the size of household agricultural landholding. Regression analyses also suggest that the size of a household agricultural landholding is a critical determinant of child nutritional status in rural India after controlling for other important socioeconomic factors that are known to affect the child nutritional status.