The Role of Organic Farming for Improving Food Security from the Perspective of Fars Farmers

• Main Authors: Laleh Morshedi, Farhad Lashgarara, Seyed Jamal Farajollah Hosseini, Maryam Omidi Najafabadi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2017-11-01
• Series: Sustainability
• Subjects: food security; social; economic; environmental dimension; organic farming
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/11/2086

This study was designed to evaluate the role of organic farming in improving food security from the perspective of farmers in the Fars province of Iran. The research method was practical in terms of its purpose, non-experimental in terms of the data collection, and correlational in terms of the data analysis. The study population comprised 622 farmers who were members of plant pathology clinics in Fars province of which 187 of them were selected as the sample size by the use of Cochran’s formula through a proportional stratified sampling method. The research tool was a questionnaire for which validity was confirmed by experts and its reliability by Cronbach’s alpha coefficient (0.704–0.982). The results revealed that farmers (45.5%) viewed their food security at an average level. The estimated standardized regression coefficients in the model showed that, from the farmers’ perspective, the most effective capabilities in improving food security were technical (0.747), health and safety (0.735), and the optimization of production (0.628), respectively.