New research says access to regional markets in Africa is key to healthy, balanced diets

Undernutrition and low dietary quality remain widespread challenges in Africa, which is why researchers advocate farmers grow a wide variety of crops on their farms to improve diet diversity. However, a new study suggests that good access to regional markets is more important to achieving a balanced diet for small farmers in low- and middle-income countries.

The authors highlight that better-functioning markets increase the variety of foods available locally, which benefits the population as a whole. They conclude that “higher diversity on each individual farm may not be required.” 

Co-author Dr. Thanh Tung Nguyen, a researcher at the Center for Development Research (ZEF), details that producing a more diverse range of crops and animals on smallholder farms improved dietary diversity but that this effect was small. Diversity in the region was more important than diversity on every farm. 

“Small-scale agricultural production in Africa tends to be highly diverse anyway. Ensuring good access to local and regional markets is more important than further improving the diversity on every single farm. These markets not only allow farmers to sell their surplus food but also enable them to purchase those foods that they are lacking.”

Effect on balanced diets

Researchers at the University of Bonn, Germany, analyzed surveys of almost 90,000 households — mostly smallholder farmers — in Ethiopia, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda collected between 2008 and 2022. The results are published in Nature Food. 

Co-author Dr. Matin Qaim, ZEF professor, says: “Among other things, the surveys provided insights into the number of crops the farmers cultivated and the number of animal species they kept.” 

“In addition, the data contained information on the types of food consumed in each household.”

The authors analyzed foods consumed by farm households, which indicates that markets are, in most cases, more important for a healthy diet than farmers’ food production. On average, farmers’ production accounted for only a third of foods consumed in the household. 

The authors stress that it is not necessary for every small farm to grow all of the products they need for a healthy diet themselves.Moreover, they caution that producing diverse food products can be disadvantageous as each crop requires unique expertise. 

“It is better to focus on those crops that flourish particularly well in the local conditions and then sell any surplus food,” explains Nguyen. 

Last year, alliances in East and Southern Africa set out to advance legislative reforms to address food security with traditional, indigenous, nutritious and forgotten foods. Meanwhile, the FAO highlighted how the continent’s “forgotten crops” can improve nutrition security. 

Improving infrastructure

In all six African countries covered by the research, the results indicate that the closer households were to a local market, the more their diets were enriched with purchased foods. 

“The study showed that access to local and regional markets is vitally important for a good quality diet,” emphasizes Nguyen. 

At the same time, the researchers say there is a lack of suitable infrastructure in many areas. Poor road quality often increases travel time to a market and may result in product spoilage or damage. 

Therefore, they recommend improving infrastructure to give people better access to markets instead of asking all farmers to grow the products they need for a healthy diet. 

“It is sufficient when a large enough range of foods is produced across the region because local households can purchase food diversity at markets,” says Qaim.