Investigating the Status of Food Security and Factors Affecting It among Households in Rasht County of Iran

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 MA Student in Rural Development, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Guilan University, Rasht, Iran.

2 Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Guilan University, Rasht, Iran.

3 Assistant Professor of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Planning, Economics and Rural Development Research Institute (APERDRI), Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Introduction: Over recent years, the level of food insecurity has changed under the influence of various economic, social and demographic variables, and this change has been different in different provinces of Iran. The low level of nutritional literacy, the acceleration of food prices and the decrease in real household income have caused the consumption pattern of Iranian households to change towards high-calorie foods with no nutritional value, leading to increase the number of people suffering from non-contagious diseases in the country. This study quantitatively investigated the food security situation and the factors affecting it in Rasht County. It is worth mentioning that Rasht is the capital of Guilan province and was registered as a creative food city in UNESCO. This city is the most populated city in the north of Iran among the three provinces adjacent to the Caspian Sea and is considered the largest settlement on the southern shores of the Caspian Sea.
Materials and Methods: In this study, the optimal sample size was determined to be 569 in a two-stage simple random sampling method. The required information was collected through a questionnaire in two parts, including the 18-item standard questionnaire provided by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and economic, social and demographic information from households in different parts of Rasht County in 2022. Furthermore, by quantifying the variable of food security, the effect of demographic, economic and social variables on this variable was investigated and evaluated using the ordinal logit model.
Results and Discussion: The results showed that only 45.7 percent of the surveyed households in Rasht county were in safe food conditions and more than half of the households (54.3 percent) were facing various degrees of food insecurity. In addition, based on the results of the ordinal logit model, the variables of education of the household head, place of residence, status of the residence, employment status of the household head, monthly income and food variety had positive and significant effects on the food security of households.
Conclusion: According to the study results, an increase in the level of the above-mentioned variables would increase the probability of the Rasht households living in better levels of food security. Considering the direct and significant impact of income level on food security, eliminating poverty, controlling inflation and stability in food prices in order to improve food security and eliminate food insecurity can be considered by the government. Therefore, the prevalence of food insecurity can be reduced by proper planning in the improved socio-economic status of households.

Keywords

References

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