Does Diversified Agriculture System Improve the Diversified Diets of Households? A Panel Data Study

Abstract

The study investigated the influence of agricultural diversification on the diversified diets of households in Saudi Arabia. For this purpose, data were collected from Saudi Arabia Integrated Household Survey data from 2019 to 2023. Used longitudinal research design, quantitative research approach, and panel data statistical technique of pooled and fixed effects. The panel data results show that agricultural diversification has a significant impact on a household’s food score and household’s dietary diversity score. Production diversification also has a positive and significant impact on the household’s food score and a negative and significant effect on household’s diverse dietary score. Additional factors such as farm size, market distance, and income sources also influence the food diversification score, and market distance insignificant impact on the household dietary diversification score. Specifically, farm income positively impacts household food score, while non-farm income contributes significantly to both household food score and household
diversified dietary score. The gender and age of the household head also have a significant impact on diversified household diets. The study with these significant findings emphasizes that in Saudi Arabia there should be strong agricultural policies that not only address the diversification of production in agriculture but also enforce to increase of non-farm income factors to enhance dietary diversity effectively. The study contributes novel insights into the effects of agricultural diversification on diversified diets in the Saudi context and offers implications for policy development.