IMPACT OF WOMEN WORKLOAD IN AGRICULTURE ON INFANT AND YOUNG DIETARY DIVERSTY IN HARAMAYA WOREDA, EAST HARARGHE ZONE, OROMIA REGIONAL STATE, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

This study applied a generalized propensity score method to evaluate the impact of women agricultural workload on infant and young child dietary diversity on Haramaya Woreda, infant and young child received minimum dietary diversity within 24 hours, as proxy of infant and young child caring practice. The analysis was based on cross-sectional survey data collected in 2017 from 348 infant and young child’s mother in the Haramaya Woreda, East Hararghe zone, Oromia Region state in Ethiopia. The method was applied to match under two children care giver women with similar covariates with different time spent in agriculture. The method was effective in playful out non-linear cause relationships between women time spent on agriculture dose and infant and young child dietary diversity. The specific objectives of this study are to identify time spent on agricultural activities, factors affecting women agricultural workload. As a result, the average women time spent on agriculture was found 38.29 hrs. When we compare the average women time spent on agriculture between heavy loaded and light loaded women the average time spent on agriculture is 49.98 and 23.23 hrs per week respectively. The results revealed that an increase in treatment level from 0.3 to 0.7 and from 0.30 to 1 have a decreasing effect on infant and young child caring practices. Women agricultural workload has negative and significant effect on infant and young child caring practices. From the result, it has been found that on average as the time spent increases from 0.30 to 0.70 the rate of grain, green leafy, meat, three and above food types and four and above food types provision decrease nearly by 17%, 17%, 12%, 18%, and 18% respectively. The generalized linear model regression estimation on factors affecting women agricultural workload revealed that family size, mother education, extension contact, distance to health facility, access to health information and distance to nearest market significantly affected the time spent by women on agricultural activities. The GPSM was also checked for covariate balancing with a standardized bias, t-test, and joint significance level tests. Therefore, the infant and young child dietary diversity was significantly impacted by women agricultural workload. Interventions focused on women’s time allocation efficiency to optimize women workload and improve the infant and young child dietary diversity in this critical time should be considered in addition to current strategies to alleviate malnutrition.