AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY, SEASONALITY AND GENDER BIAS IN RURAL NUTRITION - EMPIRICAL-EVIDENCE FROM SOUTH-INDIA

This paper analyzes changes in the nutrients intake, intra-household a llocation and gender bias due to changes in agricultural productivity among four groups of rural households over six different seasons. The study utilizes household survey data collected from a village in Tamil Nadu, India. While the results are consistent with earlier findings t hat seasonality influences variation in the intake of nutrients, it is shown that subsistence agricultural households recover faster from po or crop yields than market oriented agricultural households in terms o f nutrient intake. Agricultural labour households consumed lowest quan tities of energy and protein in all the seasons with the highest degre e of gender bias. The gender bias is more in terms of protein intake c ompared to energy intake for all the households. The non-agricultural households are least affected due to variability in crop yields and se asonality. While nutritional intake of the rural households is positiv ely correlated with crop yields, the variations in yields worsen the g ender bias. It is argued that reducing dependency of rural households on agriculture may reduce malnutrition and the gender bias associated with it.