Does agricultural aid reduce child stunting

Abstract ‘Making agriculture work for nutrition’ is a widespread belief. The evidence base on the positive impacts of agricultural interventions on nutrition, however, is scarce. This paper revisits the relationships between agriculture and child nutrition through the impacts of foreign aid earmarked to agriculture on the prevalence of child stunting using a sample of 90 developing countries observed between 2002 and 2014. We find evidence for a moderate effect of agricultural aid on child stunting. Among agricultural aid, we find that aid inflows supporting agricultural education, research and services, agricultural water, and agricultural policy are effective towards child stunting reductions. Food aid is most effective at reducing child stunting. Last, we find that agricultural and food aid inflows are particularly effective in conflict settings.