Harnessing the Direct and Indirect Effects of Agriculture on Health and Nutrition to Accelerate Human Capital Development in Kenya: Evidence from Household Surveys

This paper estimates the direct and indirect effects of agriculture on health and nutrition using nationally representative survey data collected by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics in 1994, 1997, 2005 and 2015. The models estimated serve as examples of general frameworks that can be used to measure the direct and indirect effects of agriculture on health and nutrition in Africa and elsewhere. The results indicate that substantial direct and indirect improvements in health and nutrition can be achieved via policies that increase agricultural productivity. Growth in household income is the main mechanism through which the effects are transmitted to household members. Exogenous variation in household holding of land and cattle is used to identify the effects we estimate. The idea underlying the identification strategy is that agricultural policies over which households have no control can be used by the government to vary farm assets, thus changing household income, ceteris paribus. Examples of such policies include interventions that improve land tenure systems and agricultural extension services at the farm level. The conclusion highlights the policy value of our findings.