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Small‐scale, subsistence agriculture in Java has an exceptional diversity of interplanted crops — a diversity that is declining as farm sizes decrease due to population growth and greater emphasis is placed on the most profitable crops for an expanding market economy. The nutritional consequences of these changes can be examined by examining interrelationships between household economic status, market involvement, dietary preferences, crops employed, crop yields and food consumption.
The large quantity of rice in the Javanese diet frequently leads to deficiencies in the production and consumption of calcium, iron, riboflavin and vitamin A. Mixed‐cropping fields and homegardens are the major source of these critical vitamins and minerals. The production of these vitamins and minerals is greater in fields and gardens with a greater diversity of interplanted crops.
Some Javanese families do not have sufficient land to produce all the food they need. In addition to the vitamins and minerals mentioned above, calories and methionine are in particularly short supply for these families. Data obtained indicated that a mix of starchy root crops, legumes and green leafy vegetables can satisfy nutritional needs with the least amount of land. This is the cropping strategy generally followed by families with insufficient land, but they could improve their nutrition by placing greater emphasis on specific green leafy vegetables that produce larger quantities of critical vitamins and minerals.
An increase in the market economy itself does not appear to have undesirable nutritional consequences, since families are not losing critical nutrients in the process of selling their produce and buying other foods for home consumption.
