Market access, household dietary diversity and food security: Evidence from Eastern Africa

Improved access to markets can influence household dietary diversity, consumption expenditure, and food security through multiple pathways. Market access can increase smallholder farmers’ income through decreased transaction costs, improve diet quality, and reduce poverty and household food insecurity. Improved market access also expands the variety of food available, opening opportunities for consumption diversification. We examine the association between market access and household dietary diversity, consumption expenditure, and food security in the Eastern African countries of Ethiopia and Tanzania using nationally representative panel data from the World Bank’s Living Standards Measurement Study-Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA). The empirical findings demonstrate that households located closer to market centers spend more on total household consumption expenditure, consume more diverse diets, and are less food insecure than households located farther away from markets. The results suggest that investing in accessible market development and rural infrastructure to link smallholder farmers to markets is essential for improving household dietary diversity and food security in sub-Saharan African countries.