Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
sustained decline in per capita nutrient intake. In an important contribution, Deaton and
Dreze (2009) (henceforth DD) offer an analysis of the decline in nutrient intake over the
period 1983 to 2004. Their principal findings are that the average calorie consumption was
about 10% lower in rural areas in 2004-2005 than in 1983. The proportionate decline was
larger among the more affluent sections of the population, and negligible for the popula-
tion in the bottom quartile of the per capita expenditure scale. In urban areas, there was a
slight change in average calorie intake over this period. Proteins and other nutrients also
experienced a drop in per capita consumption, whereas the intake of fat increased in both
rural and urban areas. Because incomes rose over this period, these declines are puzzling.
A contentious view offered by DD is that the declines are not attributable to changes
in relative prices because an aggregate measure of the price of food—treated synony-
mously with the price of calories—changed little during this period. So the puzzle boils
down to this: Per capita calorie consumption is lower at every given level of per capita
household expenditure, across the expenditure scale, at low levels of per capita expendi-
ture as well as high, that is, there is a steady downward shift of the calorie Engel curve.5
DD are emphatic that the downward shift of the calorie Engel curve is due to lower
calorie “requirements,” associated mainly with better health and lower activity levels.
Specifically, they draw attention to major expansions in availability of safe drinking water,
vaccination rates, transport facilities, and ownership of various effort-saving durables,
relying on evidence furnished by the Indian Council of Medical Research (1990).
This section throws more light on the declines in calorie, protein, and fat intake over
the period 1993-2004, and the explanations offered of this decline. The analysis is based
mostly on unit record data collected for the 50th and 61st rounds of the NSS (corre-
sponding to 1993-94 and 2004-05, respectively).
Changes in Calorie, Protein, and Fat Intake
Calories
Until recently, a calorie intake of 2400 per day was considered adequate for a typical
adult engaged in physically strenuous work of a certain duration in rural India. More
recent assessments have used lower calorie “requirements” (1800 calories).6
As can be seen from Table 13.1, using the higher calorie requirement of 2,400, over
71% of the rural households were calorie deprived or more generally undernourished in
1993.7 With the lower norm of 1,800, this proportion falls sharply to about 31%, imply-
ing a large concentration of households in the calorie intake range of 1,800-2,400. The
proportion of undernourished rises from 71% to nearly 80% in 2004, and the proportion
below the lower cut-off from about 31% in 1993 to close to 37% in 2004, indicating high
levels of calorie deprivation. Although the mean calorie intake of those below 1,800 rose
slightly (from 1,491 to 1,516), the mean intake (overall) reduced from 2,156 in 1993 to
2,047 in 2004.
In urban India, assuming lower calorie norms of 1700 and 2100 (given less strenu-
ous physical activity in urban areas), about 28% consumed less than 1700 calories in
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