Does organic farming jeopardize food security of farm households in Benin?
研究贝宁小农采用有机农业对粮食安全的影响，发现有机农业与较低的食物安全体验、饮食多样性和维生素A摄入相关，主要因棉花收入减少而粮食作物收入无法完全补偿。
The prevalence of organic farming and other sustainability standards is increasing around the globe. While effects of organic farming on productivity, income, and poverty alleviation have been analyzed in numerous empirical studies, its effects on food security are barely understood. Using data from smallholder cotton farmers in Benin, we aim to empirically investigate how adopting organic farming affects their food security. According to our results, organic farming is conditionally associated with a notably lower experienced food security and a slightly lower dietary diversity and consumption of vitamin A-rich foods. Evaluating pathways, we find that the negative conditional association between organic farming and food security is a result of a lower household income of organic farms due to lower income from cotton farming given a smaller land area cultivated with cotton, while a larger land area cultivated with food crops cannot fully compensate for the reduced income from cotton farming. This alarming result illustrates the need for evaluating and eventually improving programs for organic farming in developing countries to ensure that good intentions for more sustainable production practices do not jeopardize the livelihoods of vulnerable smallholder farmers.