Intrahousehold empowerment gaps and dietary diversity in China.

Objective: This article analyzes the relationship between intrahousehold empowerment gaps and food and nutrition security using quantitative data collected through a household survey organized by the Agricultural Information Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS-AII), in 2023. Methods: Based on empowerment theory, this study measured the relative empowerment of spouses from the Abbreviated Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (A-WEAI). Results: From the micro-level evidence of 468 rural households, this study found that intrahousehold empowerment gaps harm the diversity of household diets. In particular, reducing gender gaps in access to resources, leadership, and income can help diversify household diets. However, data on the impact of shortening the difference in working hours between wives and husbands for the benefit of food safety are yet to be conclusive. Additionally, gender gaps in the group of non-coresident mothers-in-law and non-migrants hurt household food security. Conclusion: The paper also provides further justification for policies and interventions that aim to improve women's bargaining position in the household.

Production Choices and Food Security: A Review of Studies Based on a Micro-Diversity Perspective.

Given the 'subsistence' character of smallholder production, agricultural production diversification is often seen as an effective strategy for smallholders to improve their diets' diversity and nutritional status, yet the existing evidence remains inadequate. The study applies bibliometric data from the "Web of Science" database to synthesize 46 papers from developing countries to explore the relationship between production diversity, dietary diversity, and nutrition in smallholder households. The study identifies the most influential journals, authors, organizations, and countries and reveals research themes related to agricultural production and food security. This data analysis can help researchers target potential collaborators and access influential literature in agricultural production diversity and dietary diversity research. In addition, the results showed that agricultural production diversity potentially influences households' dietary diversity, with mixed results: Agricultural production diversification is the primary way to improve food and nutritional security among smallholder families with low socio-economic status, inaccessible transportation, and poverty; market access and trade have more potential to improve dietary diversity among smallholder households with well-developed markets and higher income levels; the significant measures of agricultural production diversity include Crop Counts, FGPD, SI, and SWDI; the significant measures of dietary diversity include HDDS and IDDS. This paper provides a roadmap for agricultural production and food security researchers by conducting a systematic review of the literature, summarizing some research methods and perspectives applicable to local socio-economic development.

Forty Years after Poverty Reduction in China: The Role of Women's Empowerment in Enhancing Food Security and Diet Diversity.

This study analyzed the role of women's empowerment in diversifying the diet of households through their own production. Developed from empowerment and food security theories, this study constructed measures from the household dietary diversity score (HDDS) and Women's Empowerment Index (WEI). The study focused on poverty-stricken regions in China and conducted a thematic questionnaire-based household survey on gender and food consumption in 2021. Based on micro-level evidence from 1199 rural households, this research found a low score of women's empowerment and an average WEI of 0.689; the status of diet diversity, measured by the HDDS, varied by income and social class; and the average rate was low. Agricultural production diversity and women's empowerment are positively associated with diet diversity. There is strong evidence that women's employment mitigates the side effects of decreasing production diversity on households' diet security. As a result, women's empowerment can potentially mitigate the adverse consequences of low agricultural diversification in household diet quality in less developed areas. This study provides evidence for repurposing food and agricultural policies toward healthy diets and gender-responsive agrifood systems.

Fall armyworm invasion heightens pesticide expenditure among Chinese smallholder farmers.

Invasive species are a prominent feature of global change. Aside from their direct impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, invasive crop pests routinely trigger environmentally-disruptive actions e.g., unguided applications of synthetic pesticides. Since 2016, the polyphagous fall armyworm (FAW, Spodoptera frugiperda J.E. Smith) has rapidly spread across Africa and Asia, impacting millions of hectares of agricultural crops. Upon its invasion of Yunnan (China) in late 2018, S. frugiperda attained outbreak population levels and inflicted important feeding damage in smallholder-managed maize crops. In this study, we show how local maize growers rely primarily on pesticides for FAW management and employ these products at 3-fold higher application frequencies as compared to 2018. Local reliance upon high-risk compounds (i.e., pyrethroids, organophosphates) decreased over time, with a respective 100% and 62% farmers using these compounds in 2018 versus 27% and 5% in 2020. Conversely, 71% and 95% farmers used new, selective compounds such as emamectin benzoate and chlorfenapyr by 2020. The full cost of pesticide-based crop protection increased from US $81 per hectare and season in 2018 to $276 in 2020. In farmer-managed fields, FAW infestation levels averaged 8.3 larvae per 100 plants and thus remained below economic injury levels (EILs) as established in other countries. Farmers' use of two or more pesticide sprays per season likely was not economically justified. Our work demonstrates how the FAW invasion has altered pest management regimes in Yunnan's maize crop, deepening farmers' pesticide dependency, and potentially exacerbating its burden on household budgets. Sustainable pest management schemes urgently need to be devised for smallholder maize systems in China and across the FAW invaded range.

Sustainability transitions in the context of pandemic: an introduction to the focused issue on social innovation and systemic impact.

For society to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, the agri-food industry needs a substantial sustainability transition toward food systems capable of delivering greater volumes of nutritious food, while simultaneously lowering the environmental footprint. This issue of AHV focuses on the big picture-on mechanisms of sustainability transition, from social innovation, to models of finance and institutional systems, and calls for business and agricultural researchers to transform the sector together. Contributors to this issue embrace a transdisciplinary outlook, including scientific, technical, social and political dimensions of agroecology. This issue is a call to action: to encourage the community of social entrepreneurs, ecosystem players and researchers to contribute analytical methods, experiences and scientific insights on emerging social innovations related to food, agriculture and rural-urban transformation.