The dual role of crop-livestock diversification in household nutrition security: Evidence from rural Ethiopia

Nutrition insecurity remains a pressing global challenge, and while crop-livestock diversification offers a promising strategy to improve household nutrition, its relationship with micronutrient consumption remains underexplored. Using panel data from the Ethiopian Socio-economic Survey (ESS) from 2018/19 to 2021/22, this study examines the role of crop-livestock diversification in household nutrition security in rural Ethiopia and explores the underlying pathways. Three aspects of farm production diversity are considered: crop-livestock diversification, crop diversification, and livestock diversification. The results indicate that crop-livestock, crop, and livestock diversification are positively associated with total and own-produced nutrient intake but negatively associated with nutrient intake from market-purchased foods. The findings further indicate that the nutritional benefits of diversification are generally stronger among households with better market access, while heterogeneity by shock exposure is more limited and nutrient-specific. The pathway analysis suggests that the relationship between crop-livestock diversification and nutrition outcomes operates through total food consumption, own-produced consumption, market-purchased consumption, farm output, and income channels. Among these channels, total food consumption and own-produced consumption represent the strongest channels, while the income channel appears comparatively weaker. These findings highlight an important nutritional trade-off: diversification is associated with greater nutrient acquisition from household production while reducing nutrient consumption from market-purchased foods. The findings suggest that policies supporting crop-livestock diversification, together with complementary nutrition-sensitive and market-supporting interventions, may contribute to improved household nutrition security while addressing production–market trade-offs.