Peer-reviewed article
The contribution of agricultural inputs in reducing child stunting
Marco Rogna ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examines how agricultural inputs affect child stunting across approximately half the world's countries over 20 years. The research finds that mineral fertilizers significantly reduce child stunting, while agricultural land per capita and manure show some positive effects but with weaker statistical evidence. Surprisingly, irrigation does not appear to reduce child stunting despite expectations.
Key points
- Mineral fertilizers make significant positive contributions to reducing child stunting
- Per-capita agricultural land and manure show positive contributions but with limited statistical significance
- Irrigation appears to have no impact on alleviating child stunting
- Analysis covers approximately half of the world's countries over a 20-year period
- Previous research has neglected the influence of agricultural inputs on nutritional outcomes
Limitations
The study operates at country level using aggregate data, which masks variation within countries and cannot establish causation at the individual or household level. The mechanisms linking agricultural inputs to child nutrition are not explored.
Abstract
Abstract While the impact of agricultural inputs on crop yields has received considerable attention, their influence on nutritional outcomes has been somewhat neglected. This study aims to fill this gap by examining the role of agricultural inputs in mitigating child stunting through linear dynamic panel regressions conducted at the country level. By analysing data from approximately half of the world’s countries over a 20-years period, our findings reveal that mineral fertilizers make significant positive contributions to reducing child stunting. Other agricultural inputs, such as per-capita agricultural land and manure exhibit a positive contribution in reducing child stunting, but their statistical significance is obtained only in few models. Surprisingly, irrigation appears to have no impact on alleviating child stunting.