Study On Food Consumption And Nutrition Of Households In Rural Poor Areas Of West China

This dissertation studied on the food consumption and nutrition of households in poor rural areas of west China based on the1368households survey data obtained from six poor counties of Shaanxi, Yunnan, and Guizhou province in July to August,2012. Price elasticities, expenditure elasticities of various foods, and other factors’impacts on food consumption were estimated with an AIDS model. The study further calculated the calorie, protein and fat intakes, analyzed the characteristics and distribution of households in different nutritional status, and estimated the factors’impacts on nutritional status by using a multiple regression model. The policy recommendations to improve the food consumption and nutrition status in rural poor areas were put forward accordingly.Chinese residents transform their diets from simple to diversified patterns. Per capital consumption of grain and vegetable declined, and that of vegetable oil, meats, poultry, and aquatic products increased. However, the urban-rural gap in food consumption is still obvious. Only per capita grain consumption of rural residents is more than that of urban residents, and the per capita consumptions of vegetable oil, meats, poultry, aquatic products, eggs and dairy products of rural residents were never surpass that of urban residents. Compare with the rural residents, the residents in poor counties consume in a more simple way, they eat more grains and less animal foods. In2010, the calorie, protein, and fat intakes per capita per day of residents in poor counties are2636.7Kcal,65.3g, and58.8g, which shows a characteristic of high calorie but very low protein and fat intakes.The consumption of grains, vegetables, beans, and oil of sample households were relatively adequate, but the consumption of eggs, dairy, and fish and shrimps were inadequate, the diet was thus unbalanced. Meats, fish, dairy, and eggs are price-elastic. The expenditure elasticities of fruits, meats, fish, dairy, eggs, and beans are all larger than1, and that of meats, fish, dairy is the highest, up to1.620. Improving the labor education, market development, and income level can all actively affect the food consumption.There are677households are calorie, protein, and fat secure, which account for49.5%of all sample households. However, there are still24.1%in energy insecurity, and41.9%in protein insecurity. Nutritional statuses are significantly different from counties. Luonan in Shaanxi is the most energy secure, but the most fat insecure county, and Zheng’an in Guizhou is the most protein insecure county. Per capita food expenditure has a positive impact to calorie, protein, and fat intakes. The impacts from per capita income and labor education years are insignificant. Lack of nutrition education may cause the inconsistencies of the impacts from the same factors on food consumption and on nutrition.Increasing poverty alleviation inputs, stabilizing agricultural market prices, developing featured agricultural products, and increasing education investments, etc. are conducive to improving the income of households in poor areas to improve food and nutrition status. But these should be implemented together with nutrition educations especially for women, as well as other nutrition interventions to guide the households to rationally allocate their income to diet in healthy way.