Modeling the Factors Affecting Rural Households’ Food Security in Zanjan County

The main objective of this research was modeling the factors affecting rural households’ food security in Zanjan County. The statistical population of the current research was 25864 rural household heads in Zanjan County which based on Bartlett et al. (2001) formula, 353 of them were selected using a two-stage sampling method. A questionnaire was used for data collection. The face validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by a panel of experts and as well as the construct validity and the reliability of the questionnaire were obtained after making necessary corrections. The collected data were analyzed using SPSSWin22 and Smart PLS3 software. The descriptive results of the research showed that most of the surveyed respondents (more than two thirds) were in severe food insecurity situation. Moreover, the results of structural equation modeling revealed that each of five factors of economic, policy-regulatory, educational-information, family and geographical had positive and significant effects on rural household heads’ food security level and explained about 57.9 percent of variances in the dependent variable. However, the relationship between social factors and the food security level was not significant.