Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Dec 6:11:1215462.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1215462. eCollection 2023.

Women's input and decision-making in agriculture are associated with diet quality in rural Tanzania

Isabel Madzorera  1   2 , Lilia Bliznashka  3 , Mia M Blakstad  2 , Alexandra L Bellows  4 , Chelsey R Canavan  2 , Dominic Mosha  5 , Sabri Bromage  6   7 , Ramadhani A Noor  2 , Patrick Webb  8 , Shibani Ghosh  8 , Joyce Ludovick Kinabo  9 , Honorati Masanja  5 , Wafaie W Fawzi  2   7   10
Affiliations

Women's input and decision-making in agriculture are associated with diet quality in rural Tanzania

Isabel Madzorera et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: Women's empowerment is one critical pathway through which agriculture can impact women's nutrition; however, empirical evidence is still limited. We evaluated the associations of women's participation, input, and decision-making in key agricultural and household activities with women's diet quality.

Methods: We analyzed data from a cross-sectional study of 870 women engaged in homestead agriculture. We used food frequency questionnaires to assess women's diets and computed women's diet quality using the Prime Diet Quality Score (PDQS) (range 0-42), which captures healthy and unhealthy foods. We evaluated women's decision-making in 8 activities, food crop farming, cash crop farming, livestock raising, non-farm economic activities, wage/salary employment, fishing, major household expenditures, and minor household expenditures. Generalized estimating equations (GEE) linear models were used to evaluate associations between (a) women's participation, (b) decision-making, (c) adequate input, (d) adequate extent of independence in decision-making in agriculture, and (e) adequate input in use of agricultural income with their PDQS. Adequate input was defined as input into some, most or all decisions compared to input into few decisions or none. Adequate extent of independence was defined as input to a medium or high extent compared to input to a small extent or none.

Findings: Median PDQS was 19 (IQR: 16-21). Women's adequate input in decision-making on wage and salary employment (estimate: 4.19, 95% CI: 2.80, 5.57) and minor expenditures were associated with higher PDQS vs. inadequate input. Women with independence in decision-making on livestock production (estimate: 0.97, 95% CI: 0.05, 1.90) and minor household expenditures, and women with adequate decision-making in the use of income from wages/salaries (estimate: 3.16, 95% CI: 2.44, 3.87) had higher PDQS. Participation in agricultural activities was positively associated with PDQS.

Conclusions: Women's participation and input in decision-making in wage and salary employment, livestock production, and minor household expenditures were strongly associated with the consumption of better-quality diets. Women participating in multiple farm activities were also likely to have better diet quality. This study adds to the growing evidence on the pathways through which women's empowerment may influence women's nutrition in rural Tanzania.

Keywords: agriculture; decision-making; diet quality; sub-Saharan Africa; women; women's empowerment; women's participation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Theory of change.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Prevalence of (A) women's input in decision-making in agricultural activities (B) women's extent of independence in decision-making in agricultural activities, and (C) women's input in decision-making on the use of income from agricultural activities and for household expenditures in rural Tanzania.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Torheim LE, Ferguson EL, Penrose K, Arimond M. Women in resource-poor settings are at risk of inadequate intakes of multiple micronutrients. J Nutr. (2010) 140:2051S−8S. 10.3945/jn.110.123463 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Popkin BM, Corvalan C, Grummer-Strawn LM. Dynamics of the double burden of malnutrition and the changing nutrition reality. Lancet. (2020) 395:65–74. 10.1016/S0140-6736(19)32497-3 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Davis JN, Oaks BM, Engle-Stone R. The double burden of malnutrition: a systematic review of operational definitions. Curr Dev Nutr. (2020) 4:nzaa127. 10.1093/cdn/nzaa127 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ministry of Health Community Development Gender Elderly and Children Ministry of Health and and National Bureau of Statistics Office Office of Chief Government Statistician ICF . Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey and Malaria Indicator Survey 2015-2016. Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, MoHCDGEC, MoH, NBS. OCGS, and ICF (2016).
    1. Anderson CL, Reynolds TW, Biscaye P, Patwardhan V, Schmidt C. Economic benefits of empowering women in agriculture: assumptions and evidence. J Dev Stud. (2021) 57:193–208. 10.1080/00220388.2020.1769071 - DOI

Publication types