The Cost of Nutritious Food in South Asia

The high cost of nutritious foods can worsen poor diets and nutrition outcomes especially among low-income households. Yet little is known about the spatial and temporal patterns of the cost of nutritious diets in South Asia, where malnutrition in...

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Main Authors:	Dizon, Felipe, Herforth, Anne
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	English
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2018
Subjects:	FOOD PRICES DIETS NUTRITION FOOD SECURITY NUTRITIOUS FOOD PRICE INDEX CONSUMER PRICE INDEX NPI CPI
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/382091534429994437/The-cost-of-nutritious-food-in-South-Asia http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30284

id	okr-10986-30284
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-302842022-09-19T12:16:33Z The Cost of Nutritious Food in South Asia Dizon, Felipe Herforth, Anne FOOD PRICES DIETS NUTRITION FOOD SECURITY NUTRITIOUS FOOD PRICE INDEX CONSUMER PRICE INDEX NPI CPI The high cost of nutritious foods can worsen poor diets and nutrition outcomes especially among low-income households. Yet little is known about the spatial and temporal patterns of the cost of nutritious diets in South Asia, where malnutrition in multiple forms remains high. Using existing food price data from Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and India, two methods are applied to assess the affordability of nutritious foods: Cost of a Recommended Diet (CoRD) and Nutritious Food Price Index (NPI). The analysis finds that the cost of a nutritious diet is 38 percent higher in Sri Lanka using CoRD compared to the cost of a (calorie-based) diet that meets basic food needs, and 15 percent higher in Afghanistan. In addition, CoRD varies across cities due to variability in the price of dairy and vegetables. Comparison of the NPI and the food Consumer Price Index (CPI) indicates that, for some countries, the price of a nutritious food basket varies more by season and has been increasing at a faster rate than the price of a typical food basket. This phenomenon is largely due to the variable cost of vegetables. 2018-08-23T15:46:29Z 2018-08-23T15:46:29Z 2018-08 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/382091534429994437/The-cost-of-nutritious-food-in-South-Asia http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30284 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8557 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper South Asia
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English
topic	FOOD PRICES DIETS NUTRITION FOOD SECURITY NUTRITIOUS FOOD PRICE INDEX CONSUMER PRICE INDEX NPI CPI
spellingShingle	FOOD PRICES DIETS NUTRITION FOOD SECURITY NUTRITIOUS FOOD PRICE INDEX CONSUMER PRICE INDEX NPI CPI Dizon, Felipe Herforth, Anne The Cost of Nutritious Food in South Asia
geographic_facet	South Asia
relation	Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8557
description	The high cost of nutritious foods can worsen poor diets and nutrition outcomes especially among low-income households. Yet little is known about the spatial and temporal patterns of the cost of nutritious diets in South Asia, where malnutrition in multiple forms remains high. Using existing food price data from Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and India, two methods are applied to assess the affordability of nutritious foods: Cost of a Recommended Diet (CoRD) and Nutritious Food Price Index (NPI). The analysis finds that the cost of a nutritious diet is 38 percent higher in Sri Lanka using CoRD compared to the cost of a (calorie-based) diet that meets basic food needs, and 15 percent higher in Afghanistan. In addition, CoRD varies across cities due to variability in the price of dairy and vegetables. Comparison of the NPI and the food Consumer Price Index (CPI) indicates that, for some countries, the price of a nutritious food basket varies more by season and has been increasing at a faster rate than the price of a typical food basket. This phenomenon is largely due to the variable cost of vegetables.
format	Working Paper
author	Dizon, Felipe Herforth, Anne
author_facet	Dizon, Felipe Herforth, Anne
author_sort	Dizon, Felipe
title	The Cost of Nutritious Food in South Asia
title_short	The Cost of Nutritious Food in South Asia
title_full	The Cost of Nutritious Food in South Asia
title_fullStr	The Cost of Nutritious Food in South Asia
title_full_unstemmed	The Cost of Nutritious Food in South Asia
title_sort	cost of nutritious food in south asia
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2018
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/382091534429994437/The-cost-of-nutritious-food-in-South-Asia http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30284
_version_	1764471605827731456

The Cost of Nutritious Food in South Asia

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