The Effects of nonfarm activities on farm households’ food consumption in rural Cambodia

This article analyzes the effects of participation in nonfarm activities on farm households’ food consumption in rural Cambodia. An endogenous switching model is built on data from the Cambodia Socio-Economic Survey conducted in 2009 to evaluate whether rural farm households make food consumption gains from participation in such activities. This model accounts for selection bias resulting from unobserved factors that potentially affect both farm households’ decision to participate in nonfarm activities and food consumption. The model also controls for structural differences between participants in nonfarm activities and nonparticipants that most previous studies do not account for. The results suggest that by engaging in nonfarm activities, rural farm households make positive gains in per capita food consumption, thus confirming the hypothesis that engagement in nonfarm activities exerts positive effects on household food consumption.