High-zinc rice and randomized nutrition training among women farmers: a panel data analysis of long-term adoption in Bangladesh

This paper aims to examine the effect of nutrition training on the adoption of high-zinc rice among female farmers with young children in Bangladesh. The authors first conducted a randomized control trial by providing female farmers with micronutrient training in randomly selected villages in May-June 2017, followed by a phone-based survey on high-zinc rice seeds among farmer trainees and counterparts in control villages. We conducted a three-visit panel survey in 2018–2020 to measure the effect of nutrition training on high-zinc rice adoption. We found that the adoption of high-zinc rice in the Aman or rainy season during July-August declined from 59% in 2018 to 8% in 2020 among treated farmers and from 13% to 2% among control farmers. The regression analysis indicated that nutrition training had a significant but diminishing effect on the adoption of high-zinc rice. Unavailability of seeds and low yields were cited as the major reasons for not using high-zinc rice, while lack of knowledge about high-zinc rice was the dominant reason among the control farmers. The results have shown that continuous training, public messaging, and improving seed systems are required to sustain zinc rice adoption. The trainings should tackle the nutritional advantages of biofortified crops to ensure knowledge retention and farm practices and management techniques to achieve optimal production.