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Climate vulnerability and household nutrition in India

birth to well-nourished children, and better-nourished children can keep themselves more engaged in productive work during
their youth and adulthood (Global Nutrition Report, 2014). Proper nutrition averts death (particularly during childhood). It
enables healthy growth of the body and the growth of cognitive skills to its full potential, without which life and livelihood
become quicksand. Malnutrition is also responsible for ill-health than any other cause is (Global Nutrition Report, 2014).
Malnutrition is a universal issue. Its burden remains unacceptably high, coupled with stunted progress all over the world.
Children under age five face multiple burdens of malnutrition. Gender disaggregated data show that women have a higher
propensity of a burden than men in certain forms of malnutrition, i.e., obesity and overweight. As per United Nations
Children Fund (UNICEF) estimates, globally, 151 million children under age five are stunted, 50.5 million are wasted, 38.3
million are overweight, and a quintile million babies are born with the low birth weight each year. Nearly one of four adults
(38.9%) are overweight or having obesity, one-third of women in reproductive age have anemia, and a million women are
still underweight (UNICEF, 2006). Poor nutrition and deficiency of vitamins and minerals in food plates result in physical
disorders and higher susceptibility to several diseases (Horton and Steckler, 2013). The latest analysis available suggests that
undernutrition is associated with three million child-deaths annually, which is almost half of child mortality globally (Global
Nutrition Report, 2018). Nearly one-third of global stunted children (about 57 million) are living in India and the majority of
them live in rural areas which are a matter of great policy concern.
Across the world, it has been well recognized that linking policies and investments on agriculture with improved
health and sanitation have a potential impact on improving the household nutrition outcomes. Unfortunately, in India, the
agriculture production system is still reeling under traditional staple grain fundamentalism. This has a limited scope to
address the issues of undernutrition through available food systems. Black, Victora, Walker, et al. (2013) have found that
agriculture has strong potential to influence the underlying determinants of nutrition outcomes by improving global food
availability and access through enhancing household food security, dietary quality, income, and women’s empowerment
(Black, Victora, Walker, et al., 2013). In this backdrop, nutrition-sensitive agriculture interventions can be a potential
source for ensuring positive nutritional outcomes by increasing the quality and availability of agricultural commodities,
as well as the quality of food in terms of diet diversity, nutrient content, and food safety. As defined by UNICEF (1990),
four main factors play a crucial role in determining the household nutrition status: (i) Availability and access to quality
food; (ii) quality of feeding and caregiving practices; (iii) health of the surrounding environment, and (iv) access to
health care services (UNICEF, 1990). Each of these determinants is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for proper
nutrition at the household level. This paper attempts to comprehend the factors that are influencing the availability of
and accessibility of quality food at the household level in Odisha, particularly from a climate vulnerability perspective.
The study conceptualizes that the availability of quality food at the household level is affected by climate vulnerability,
contributing partly to poor household nutrition outcomes.

1.1. Relationship of Climate Vulnerability and Household Food and Nutrition Status
Climate-induced variability has a significant contribution to the vulnerability quantum of biophysical as well as
socioeconomic ecosystems. The biophysical ecosystem consists of mountains, rivers, forests, wetlands, etc., whereas
socioeconomic ecosystem comprises the hill communities, coastal communities, agriculture, and animal husbandry, etc.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) defines “vulnerability” as the “propensity or predisposition of a
system to be adversely affected.” It is an intrinsic property of a system which includes “sensitivity,” i.e., susceptibility
to harm, exposure to potential hazards, and “lack of adaptive capacity” (IPCC, 2014). As per IPCC report 2014, global
climate change will reduce agricultural production by 2% every decade while the demand for food will increase by 14%
every decade until 2050. Yields of primary crops will face an average decline of 8% for Africa and South Asia by 2050.
The decrease in food production and a reduction in nutritional quality could increase child malnutrition up to 20 % by
2050 and additional 600 million people will suffer from hunger due to climate change (IPCC, 2014). The poorest countries
and regions are generally most susceptible to damage caused by weather extremes and climate variability. Countries
with a higher human development index (HDI) are less likely to be affected by the ill effects of floods, droughts, and
cyclones (Malik, Awan and Khan, 2012; Patt, Tadross, Nussbaumer, et al., 2010). Among all the countries of the world,
India is quite vulnerable because; more than three of ten poor people live in India, 70% of its inhabitants are engaged
in agriculture, 40 million hectares of land susceptible to floods, 68% of its agricultural land vulnerable to drought, long
coastline prone to cyclones, and rising annual mean temperature (GOI, 2004; GoO, 2017; Radhakrishnan, Sivaraman,
Jena, et al., 2017). The State of Odisha has been experiencing distinct weather variability resulting in significant negative
effects on agriculture production, thus elevating the prospect of hunger and malnutrition. Odisha features as one of
the most vulnerable states in India to climate change regime and the occurrence of natural disasters, including floods,
cyclones, drought, and heatwaves (Ray-Bennett, 2009; GOI, 2012; GoO, 2016; Patel, 2016). The geographic location and

42 International Journal of Population Studies | 2020, Volume 6, Issue 1