The Islamic-Iranian Food Security Model for Iranian Rural People (Case: South of Kerman Province)

Having food security is the most basic human right that unfortunately many people lack it around the world (Razaghi, 2009). This indicates the necessity of paying attention to improving nutrition and food security of villagers with an approach to Islamic-Iranian model because optimal nutrition requires the necessary eating habits. Identifying factors such as historical background, cultural, social and economic status, beliefs and most importantly, religion are very important that per them, a desirable form of meal is formed in the family and society (Khodadadi et al., 2007). Therefore, recognizing complex issues and identifying appropriate solutions to reduce food insecurity necessitates research on the food security situation (Pothy, 2007); thus, this article aims to address food security and to present an Islamic-Iranian model in order to improve food security in the rural southern part of Kerman Province.
2. Theoretical Framework: Food security is a calculated approach to obviate food and nutritional problems in a defined framework for planning and management development (Zareei Bideskan, & Mehrabi Boshar Abadi, 2012). Several studies in Iran have shown that food security has a relatively good situation at the macro level, but the unfair distribution of food in the deprived provinces has made the access of many poor groups to food difficult; thus, it can be said that there are risks at individuals and household levels (Dini Torkamani, 2003; Ahmadpour Kakhk, 2003; Khezri, 2003; Shakuri, 2004). Accordingly, if knowledge of Iranian traditional foods and Islamic culture of nutrition replace artificial foods and western food culture, both health and hygiene are provided and it is also economical; thus, we can provide the best foods with our own rich resources of food, so the formation of Islamic-Iranian model of food security for rural areas is a priority.
3. In terms of purpose, this research is a basic-applied reaserh. The study population included all rural households in the southern province of Kerman including Jiroft, Faryab, Manoujan, Qhale ganj, Kahnooj, South Roodbar and Anbarabad that were 121.849 households and 390 households were selected among them by stratified random sampling. The study instrument was a questionnaire made by the researcher. Its validity was confirmed through content validity by experts and its reliability was estimated by a pilot test. In order to offer the Islamic-Iranian model of food security, SPSS software version 21 was used to analyze the data.
4. The highest and lowest of rural household mothers’ ages were respectively 70 and 18 years with an average of 42 years. In addition, the most frequent educational level of mothers was junior high school (36.9 percent) and the least frequenct levels were high school diploma and associate's degree (17 percent). Household population in four groups of 2 to 3 individuals, 4 to 5 individuals, 6 to 7 individuals and more than 8 individuals showed that the third group (6-7) is the most frequent one. The maximum and minimum monthly costs of food in households were respectively 100,000 to 700,000 Tomans. The exploration of food security was done with variables such as "observing the frequency of meals", "the amount of access to food", "meals cooking appropriately", "enough time spent on preparing and cooking" and " required calorie intake". Results revealed that 55.9 percent of the studied households "rarely" eat all kind of the meals. In addition, observing the cooking times of meals of 65 percent of households was "sometimes". The amount of access to food centers was less than "average" for more than half of the studied households. Finally, the four-fifths of households were "very weak" and "weak" in terms of required calorie intake.
5. Conclusions & Suggestions
Providing calories for 70% of households is at the "medium to low" level which is, on the one hand, affected by "access to food material centres", so that only for "one-third" of the studied housholds is possible. That is why they are even unaware of many foods and their effects on body and soul health. On other hand, cooking "lunch" and "dinner" are often happening indicating that they have an increased focus on taking these two meals on time, but they "rarely" have cooking breakfast and snacks in their daily diet. The meals that the "necessary time" is spent to uphold the principles of cooking have high quality. However, in more than half of the studied households the "preparation and cooking time" is low and lower than the "average". Moreover, two-thirds of household's calorie intake is "very low" and for the one-third of the remaining households is "moderate to high". Therefore, the favorable rural households’ food security is met when they realize the body nutritional needs and the aim of nutrition is the "cells satiety" and "body nutrients requirements”. This is fulfilled through full "access" to economic, physical and cultural rights to food and by providing "proper food" for "all meals" with "time" to uphold the principles of cooking to provide the daily family "calories" needs.
To this end, according to the aims of the study, the following strategies are suggested: presenting nutritional educational programs by the mass media for cell satiety not just abdominal fullness; the necessity of paying attention to each region's food culture and training in order to improve it; presenting consulting services directly and indirectly to raise awareness among families about nutrition and food security; creating workshops and manufacturing plants for rural employment to increase incomes; providing proper nutritional guidelines for different age groups to fit the specific characteristics of each region's population; monitoring the nutritional status of the community through periodical data collection, reporting to the relevant authorities to ensure food security.