Diversity in Calorie Sources and Undernourishment during Rapid

Economic Growth

lavleshs@gmail.com

Topics to be covered

• Introduction• Data Sets and Food Consumption

Patterns• Calorie Shares of Food items• Comparison of Prevalence of

Under nutrition (POU)• Principal Determinants of Dietary

changes in Vietnam• Conclusion

Introduction

• Comparing dietary diversity and under-nourishment in India and Vietnam from early 1990s to the middle of the first decade of the new millennium

• Studying the difference between poverty lines based on expenditure (POV) and calorie based (POU)

Data Sets and Food Consumption Patterns

National Sample Survey (NSS) rounds taken:

43rd (June 1987 – June 1988)

50th (June 1993 – June 1994)

55th (June 1999 – June 2000)

57th (June 2001 – June 2002)

Indian Data Set used:

Vietnamese Living Standard Survey

(VLSS)

1992-93 1997-98 2002 2004

Vietnamese Data Set used:

Vietnamese Household Living Standard Survey

(VHLSS)

Data Sets and Food Consumption Patterns

Data Sets and Food Consumption Patterns• A household is classified as “undernourished”, if its

observed calorie intake is less than its required amount, given its household size and composition

• The POU is measured to be the percentage of households who are unable to meet their daily calorie requirements

• To calculate the prevalence of under nutrition (POU) rates, age gender specific daily calorie requirements for rural Indians

• The corresponding urban figures were obtained by scaling down these numbers by a factor of 0.875

Data Sets and Food Consumption Patterns• Quantities consumed were converted into calorie

intake by applying FAO conversion factors

• For minor food items and “eating out” for which quantity information wasn’t available, the available expenditure information on these items was converted into calorie

• This was done by using the average price of calories to the household from the rest of the food items, i.e., those for which the quantity information was available

Per capita consumption of Food items(in kg/30 days)

Rice Other Cereals

Dairy Meat/Fish Fruits/Veg0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

India - 1988 India - 2002 Vietnam - 1992/93Vietnam - 2004

21%

15%

5%12%

47%

2002 (India)

74%

7%

12%

0% 7%

1992-93 (Vietnam)

Expenditure Shares of Food items

25%

10%

4%10%

51%

1988 (India)

34%

5%30%

1%

31%

2004 (Vietnam)

1992-93 1997-98 2002 20040

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Rice - Rural Linear (Rice - Rural) UrbanLinear (Urban)

% Calorie Share of Rice in Vietnam

% Calorie Share of Rice in India

1987-88 2001-020

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Rural Linear (Rural) Urban Linear (Urban)

Calorie Shares of Food items

• In both India and Vietnam, nutritional importance of rice is of much higher order than that suggested by its expenditure share

• This confirms that, in both countries, rice and other cereal items were performing a useful role as an inexpensive calorie source, especially for poorer households

Rice Other Cereals

Fruits/Veg Sugar/Spices Processed Food

05

101520253035404550

% Calorie Share of Food items in India(by expenditure class)

Rice Other Cereals

Fruits/Veg Sugar/Spices Processed Food

05

101520253035

Urban

Rural

% Calorie Share of Food items in Vietnam(by expenditure class)

Urban

Rural

Rice (1992-93) Rice (2004) Other Cereals (1992-93)

Other Cereals (2004)

0

20

40

60

80

Rice (1992-93) Rice (2004) Other Cereals (1992-93)

Other Cereals (2004)

0

20

40

60

80

Comparison of Prevalence of Under nutrition (POU)• The POU measure is regarded as a “direct”

method of measuring poverty unlike the more commonly used expenditure based poverty rates (POV) that are referred to as “indirect” methods

• This suggests a weakening of the link between the official poverty lines and calorie requirements due to the changes in dietary practices in India that have been reported above

• Unlike in India, the decline in the POU rates in Vietnam is consistent with the decline in her POV rates [World Bank 2000]

POU versus POV in India

Poverty Rates (1987-88)

POU Rates (1987-88) POU Rates (2001-02)0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Rural Urban

POU in Vietnam

1992-93 1997-98 2002 20040

10

20

30

40

50

60

Rural Urban

Principal Determinants of Dietary changes in Vietnam• Dietary changes in favour of increased dietary

diversity have been much larger in Vietnam than in India

• Increased dietary diversity is associated with an increase in calorie consumption

• Traditional dietary pattern in Vietnam has been high in carbohydrates and low in fat; but the situation is changing fast with rapid increases in calorie intake

Principal Determinants of Dietary changes in Vietnam• This raises a question: Which are the factors that

have been driving these larger dietary changes in Vietnam?

• Overall, the Vietnamese results suggest that differential income growth between regions, ethnic communities, and expenditure classes, during a period of strong economic growth, along with increased education levels and changes in household composition, lead to large dietary changes with nutritional implications for the country as a whole

Conclusion

• The Indian budget surveys show a decline in calorie intake and rise in undernourishment rates throughout the 1990s, the Vietnamese data shows the exact reverse with a sharp increase in calorie intake in the late 1990s

• The Vietnamese diet showed much greater changes in favour of increased diversity than happened in case of India

• There is clearly scope for greater diversification in the Vietnamese diet with a potentially greater role for fruits, vegetables and dairy products

Conclusion

• One of the chief conclusions of this study is that there is nothing inevitable in the Indian experience of declining calorie intake and increasing undernourishment during a period of rapid economic growth

• The Indian evidence shows that one should not automatically associate poverty reduction with a reduction in undernourishment

Thank You!