Investigating the Villagers’ Food Security Situation and Determining its Relationship with their Demographic Characteristics (The Case of Zanjan County)

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the villagers’ food security situation in Zanjan County and to identify its relationship with their demographic characteristics. The statistics population of this research was all heads of households in rural areas of Zanjan County. The population was 25864 cases based on the general census in 2016. According to formula developed by Bartlett and his colleagues in 2001, a sample of 379 household heads was selected using a multistage sampling approach. A questionnaire was employed to collect the data. A panel of experts at University of Zanjan confirmed the face validity of the questionnaire. A pilot study was conducted to establish the reliability of the instrument. Cronbach alpha coefficients for the main scales of questionnaire were at appropriate level (higher than 0.70). The software of SPSS and AMOS20 were used to analyze the data, and the results were presented in two sections of descriptive and inferential statistics. The results of villagers’ food security based on Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) showed that the majority of respondents (67.4 percent) suffering from severe food insecurity. The results of the correlation analysis revealed that there were significant negative relationships between food security and the variables agricultural experience, village distance to the nearest city, and village distance to the nearest market and shopping center. Whereas, there were significant positive relationships between food security and variables irrigated lands, monthly income from non-agricultural activities, and level of social interactions and participation. Findings of the comparison test indicated that there was a significant difference among villagers’ food security in terms of main occupation.