Hot Weather, Undernutrition, and Adaptation in Rural India

We examine the impact of temperature during the growing season on household diets in the subsequent year in rural India, a setting with a high prevalence of small family farms. High growing season temperatures reduce crop yields, which would presumably reduce incomes and home-grown food for consumption. However, household adaptation could mitigate how the reductions in yields affect diets. We find that heat increases the number of strongly undernourished households in the subsequent year, as measured by the consumption of calories, iron, zinc, thiamine, and niacin. We also find suggestive evidence that households adapt to heat-induced losses of home-grown crops by purchasing more food.