Longitudinal Assessment of a Digital Climate Advisory Platform on Crop Diversification and Nutritional Outcomes in Ethiopia's Central Highlands

Climate variability threatens food security in Ethiopia's Central Highlands, where diets rely heavily on a few staple crops. Digital climate advisory services are promoted to enhance agricultural resilience, but evidence of their direct impact on crop diversity and household nutrition remains limited. This longitudinal study aimed to assess the impact of a digital climate advisory platform on crop diversification at farm level and on nutritional outcomes at household level. A prospective cohort study was conducted with smallholder farming households. Participants were enrolled from users and non-users of the platform. Data on crop types cultivated, agricultural practices, and household dietary intake were collected at baseline and at multiple follow-up points over several agricultural seasons. Nutritional status was assessed via dietary diversity scores and anthropometric measurements of children under five. Platform users demonstrated a significant increase in crop species richness compared to non-users. Households using the advisories were 1.8 times more likely to achieve moderate or high household dietary diversity. However, no statistically significant difference was observed in the prevalence of childhood stunting between the two groups during the study period. The digital climate advisory platform effectively promoted crop diversification, which was associated with improved household dietary diversity. This did not translate into measurable improvements in child growth metrics within the study timeframe. Digital advisories should be integrated with nutrition-sensitive agriculture interventions. Future platforms should include direct messaging on nutrition and link farmers to diverse seed systems. Longer-term studies are needed to assess impacts on chronic malnutrition. Digital agriculture, climate advisory, crop diversification, dietary diversity, nutrition, Ethiopia, longitudinal study This study provides longitudinal evidence from a real-world intervention, contributing to the field of nutrition-sensitive agriculture by quantifying the link between digital climate services, on-farm diversity, and household nutrition.