Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
We developed an alternative explanation of changes in the consumption of calories,
protein, and fats over the more recent period, 1993-2004. Our results show consistently
robust food price and expenditure effects. Besides, shifts in food price elasticities over
time are significant, indicating changes in price responsiveness of demand. Over and
above these effects, there are shifts in demands due to factors other than those speci-
fied in the demand equations. In the context of calories, for example, it is plausible that
part of the reduction in their consumption was due to health improvements and less
strenuous activity levels. In conclusion, although the Deaton-Dreze (2009) explana-
tion is not rejected, it is arguable that it is complementary to the demand-theory based
explanations.29
Calorie Thresholds and
Undernutrition
There are important conceptual and measurement issues in undernutrition. If the pro-
portions of undernourished people are measured using fixed calorie norms, there is an
increase in the prevalence of undernutrition (synonymous with calorie-deprivation).
Even if the calorie norms are taken to be lower, a grim picture emerges. Using fixed calo-
rie norms to measure undernutrition is suspect for familiar reasons.30 A recent study
(Jensen and Miller, 2011) proposes an alternative measure that relies on consumption
behavior, as opposed to calorie norms. The basic argument is that individuals tend to
switch away from the cheapest source of calories (staple food), after surpassing sub-
sistence, and move toward more expensive sources of calories. If this switch occurs
at a certain share of calories from staples, all those above the threshold are counted as
undernourished.
Our analysis with the National Sample Survey data for 1993 and 2004 shows that such
a measure is potentially misleading as it confines variation in the calorie share to a mea-
sure of wealth, ignoring the role of relative prices. We first experimented with “Lowess”
in which the dependent variable is share of calories from cereals (cheapest and larg-
est source of calories) and the explanatory variable, wealth of a household per capita, is
approximated by monthly per capita expenditure (MPCE).31
In rural areas, in 1993, counting those above the calorie share threshold (below and
above the corresponding expenditure cut-off point), the proportion of undernourished
works out to about a quarter of the rural population, which is below that under the cal-
orie cut-off of 1,800 per capita per day. In striking contrast to our analysis with fixed
calorie norms, which shows a sharp rise in the proportion of undernourished in rural
India during 1993-2004, the Lowess results show a substantial reduction. In urban areas
too, there is a reduction in the proportion of undernourished (from 15% to 9%), due
to a sharp reduction in the proportion of those above the calorie threshold and above
the expenditure cut-off. This contrasts with the sharp increase in the proportion of
 
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