Does dairy cow technology adoption improve household dietary diversity? Evidence from central Ethiopia

Introduction Household dietary diversity remains a persistent challenge in sub-Saharan Africa, largely because of low agricultural productivity. Methods This study uses data from 571 farm households in central Ethiopia and applies an endogenous switching regression model and structural equation modelling to address selection bias and examine mediation effects. Results Adoption of dairy cow technologies significantly increases milk productivity and household dietary diversity. Adopters produce, on average, 6.3 more liters of milk per cow per day than they would without adoption, while adopter households consume food from 1.21 additional food groups. In contrast, non-adopters, if they adopted, could expect an increase of about 1.1 food groups. Higher education, ICT-based extension services, credit access, and cooperative membership facilitate adoption, whereas greater distance from markets and artificial insemination centers reduces the benefits of these services. Discussion These results show that milk productivity and income are the main channels through which dairy technology adoption improves household dietary diversity, highlighting the need to expand access to dairy technologies, digital extension, rural credit, cooperatives, and local infrastructure. JEL Classification: Q12, Q16, I15, O13, C34 and D13.