Calorie and Micronutrient Deprivation and Poverty Nutrition Traps in Rural India

SummaryWe test for the existence of a poverty nutrition trap (PNT) in the case of calories and four important micronutrients—carotene, iron, riboflavin, and thiamine—for three categories of wages: sowing, harvesting, and others for male and female workers separately using robust sample selection procedures due to Heckman to arrive at consistent and efficient estimates for rural India for the period January to June 1994. It is discovered that the PNT exists in ten cases indicating that the PNT is pervasive and has a significant impact on labor productivity of agricultural workers, particularly female agricultural workers.