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Seminar Series: Leah Bevis

Leah Bevis Seminar Series
February 6, 2020
All Day
209 W Eighteenth Ave (EA), Room 170

Title

Soils and South Asian Stunting: Low soil zinc availability drives child stunting in Nepal

Speaker

Leah Bevis, Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics, The Ohio State University

Abstract

We hypothesize that soil Zn deficiency  by limiting the Zn concentration in locally produced and consumed crops, drives human Zn deficiency and child stunting the Indo-Gangetic plain, with potential implications for regional development. Using conditionally random variation in soil Zn concentration, we find that Zn deficiency in soils indeed drives child stunting across the country, and particularly in the more economically isolated regions. Moving from "low Zn" to "high Zn" soils increases height-for-age by 0.12 standard deviations, and reduces child stunting by five percentage points. It also decreases the prevalence of child anemia. Moreover, market integration mitigates the e ect, presumably by breaking the linkage between staple crop production and staple crop consumption. Positive weather shocks increase the magnitude of the effect, likely through increasing availability of and reliance on locally-produced food. These results have important implications for regional nutrition and poverty across the Indian sub-continent. 
 

Note: Seminars are free and open to the public. Reception to follow.