ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the district as the primary unit of observation. It takes a refreshed look at the linkages of agricultural productivity, child health and women’s education to understand the convergence of these factors in affecting child underweight status. The chapter provides a literature review of the links of child undernutrition to agricultural productivity on one hand and health care and women’s education on the other. A global study on maternal and child undernutrition reveals the consequence of suboptimal breast-feeding practises and vita-min deficiencies as a major cause of severe wasting, stunting—in turn leading to high under-five mortality rates in developing countries. Ordinary least square estimation of pooled data for the two periods shows that agricultural land productivity as well as agricultural worker productivity are significantly associated with child underweight rates at the district level. The results indicate an association between underweight children and agricultural land productivity and agricultural worker productivity defined more broadly at the district level.
